Vegas, Baby
by jackie41319
Summary: Lanie and Esposito's wedding leads a now broken up Kate and Rick back together, in a very unexpected way.
1. Chapter 1

**Alright guys, this is my first fanfic. This idea came to me at work today while I was sweeping. At the time it felt genius, but as I started writing I didn't know how I would feel about the end product. **  
**I'll let you be the judge. **

**I unfortunately do not own these characters. **

"Are you sure you don't want a big wedding? I mean, I want what ever you want, but Vegas doesn't seem like something you would go for" Esposito said.

Lanie just looked at him with her 'shut up' face.

"Yeah Javi, I was the one who suggest it. I have no need for a big wedding. All I need is a small get together with our closest friends, and you."

He leaned down to kiss her and she finished packing her suitcase.

"You better behave at your bachelor party, sexy", Lanie joked.

"Hey, you too!" Esposito said.

In less than forty-eight hours they would be married and their friends lives will be changed forever.

* * *

"Hey girl!" Lanie yelled to Kate as she climbed into the cab. Inside with Lanie was Jenny and two of Lanie's other friends. They were going to the airport on their way to Vegas. The five women joked and giggled until they arrived. They checked their bags and went through security. While on the plane, Kate sat by the window and thought about Castle. She wondered if he was going to be there. She wondered if he was dating anyone, but most of all, she wondered what he had been doing for the last year.

Kate thought about what had happened between them. After she went to his loft, soaking wet and told him how she felt about him, everything was great. They were inseparable for almost three months. He needed her and she needed him even more, but she would never admit it. Everything was falling into place until they started arguing about the smallest things. They started to fight more and more everyday.

A few weeks after resigning, Esposito called Kate and said that Gates let him come back early and that she should go ask for her job back. Kate knew that she would eventually go back to the precinct.

After what felt like an eon of not working, Kate went to gates and tried to get her job back. Gates agreed, Kate was one of her best detectives, and Kate was back working the next day. Gates was skeptical to let Kate come back, she knew that Kate could never drop her mother's case.

Rick was not happy that Kate was returning to work. He knew that the first thing she was going to do is try to catch the guy who tossed her off that roof. He couldn't, he wouldn't watch her throw her life away. He gave her a choice, her life with him or solving her mother's case. Without hesitation, she chose her job. He was crushed, heart broken and tried to convince her to stay with him. Within the next two days, she packed her things out of his loft and moved out. After that, he never came in to the precinct, he never talked to her and he hadn't saw her since the day they broke up.

When she left his loft that night, she tried to persuade herself that this is the right choice. She had been trying to catch this guy for almost a decade and she had only been in a relationship with Castle for three months. Her list of pros outweighed the cons and she dived right back into her mother's case. Watching surveillance videos from the building she almost died in, asking around the building if any of the residents knew where the man went. Nobody knew anything, not that they would admit it if they did. She was at a standstill and all she could think about was Castle. She loved how he made her feel, she loved that he took such good care of her, she loved that he loved her. But that was all over now.

* * *

Rick pulled up in a limo outside of Javier's apartment. Ryan and Javier put their bags in the trunk and jumped in. They were also on their way to the airport. Ryan and Javier joked around on the way to the airport. Rick mostly sat back and smiled, he had other things on his mind. Mostly Kate. He knew she was going to be there with Lanie. What he was really curious about was if she was dating anyone now, if she ever thought about him. When they got to the airport, the boys went through security and boarded the plane. Rick's gift to Javier was first class plane tickets. Rick leaned his seat back and fell asleep and dreamed of Kate, like he had done every night for the last five years.

* * *

"Kate, were here! Wake up!" Lanie said to Kate, nudging her arm.

The girls grabbed their luggage from the baggage claim carousal and entered the streets of Las Vegas. Their fist night there was Lanie's bachelorette party. The team was working on a rather large case, so they only got a weekend off. Although Lanie and Esposito were upset that they wouldn't be able to spend more time together, they were content with the time they had. Wasting no time at all, the ladies checked into their huge hotel on the strip, changed their cloths, fixed their makeup and hair and were out the door in no time.

After that, everything went hazy.

* * *

Kate was the first to wake up and all she could think was 'what the hell happened last night?'. As she looked around, she realized that she wasn't at home.

It was all starting to come back to her, she was in Vegas for Lanie's wedding. She sat up holding her head, she felt like a train had run her over.

"Aspirin" she whispered to herself.

Pulling herself out of the comfy bed, she realized that she was naked. 'Thats weird.' She thought to herself. While waking to the bathroom, she nearly fell over the person who was sleeping on the floor wrapped up in the comforter.

"Get up, Lanie" Kate said, gently nudging the body with her foot. She put a t-shirt and shorts on and wondered to the bathroom. She did a double take at the reflection starring back at her in the mirror. Her hair was in a tangled mess, the eye makeup that she had on now smeared around her eyes, making her look like a raccoon. After brushing her teeth and washing her face, Kate heard her phone beep. She searched the room for it, eventually finding it on the floor under the bed. It was a text from Lanie.

_Sorry I never found you again last night, I ended up going back to Javi's room. _

Now she was beyond confused. If Lanie wasn't sleeping on the floor, then who was? Her detective instincts were going crazy, if Lanie had gone to Esposito's room, that eliminates them. Lanie's two friends went to bed early and she knew that Jenny and Ryan had a room together. That only left one person that she could have been with.

"Rick…..?" She said, once again nudging the person with her foot.

"Go back to sleep Kate" He said.

"Kate..?" He was now also very confused. Why was he laying on the ground? Why was Kate hovering over him and where were his cloths?

"Whats going on?" He asked.

"You tell me." She said in a sassy tone.

"All I remember is Espo's bachelor party." He sat up quickly, obviously too quickly because he grabbed his head and fell back onto the floor. "Got any Aspirin?"

She grabbed the small bottle off the bathroom counter and threw it to him. He started looking around the room for his cloths. He was unsuccessful.

"Do you know where my cloths are..?" He asked Kate.

"No." she said back, wanting nothing more then for him to leave, go back to his own room, go back to New York.

She brought her hand up to her face and started to rub her eyes, thats when she felt it.

"What the HELL is this?" she was now fantic showing Rick her left hand.

"That looks like a wedding ring." He joked. He looked down to open the bottle of Aspirin only to notice something on this hand also.

"Oh no." was all he could get out.

"What?" Kate said.

"Oh no.. I have one too." He now sounded even more confused, showing Kate his left hand.

"You better have a really good explanation for this Castle." Kate demanded.

**Reviews are very appreciated :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you to all of you who put me on alert! It made my day :)**

"Where do you think they went?" Lanie asked. She and Espo had met up with Jenny and Ryan and now were being seated at a table for brunch.

"Hopefully they talked things through." Jenny answered.

"Did you see Castle?" Ryan joked. "He couldn't have talked things through even if he wanted to."

"Bekett wasn't much better" Javi said.

"Lets just hope something bad didn't happen. I texted her this morning and she didn't answer." Lanie said with concern in her voice.

"Becketts a smart girl, she can handle herself. Castle on the other hand.." Ryan trailed off. "I've been worried about him. He usually calls us a few times a week to meet up at the Old Haunt or play poker, but he hasn't called in a while."

"Kate has been the same way. She never wants to go grab a drink after we solve a case anymore." Esposito said.

"Well, lets just hope this plan works. Kate had no idea what was going on, when we 'ran into' you guys, she was shocked." Jenny said.

"Castle was shocked to, even in his drunken haze I saw his face light up when he saw her." Lanie said.

The two couples ordered their brunch and talked about their plans for the day. The group would leave the hotel later that night and head to the chapel where Lanie and Javier were going to get married.

During their meal, they discussed their master plan to bring Castle and Beckett back together.

* * *

Kate paced back and forth in the bedroom.

"This can't be happening" She said. "Why would anyone let us get _married_? If I can't even remember what happened, I was obviously in no state to get married."

"I really couldn't tell you, Kate. The last thing I remember is leaving the casino and walking to a bar with Espo and Ryan." Castle answered.

Castle was now dressed and laying on the bed. Kate walked up and sat next to him, far enough away that she wasn't touching him but close enough to still feel his warmth. She laid back on the pillow and tried to fall back asleep. Her mind was racing. Did she want to get back together with him? Are they really married? Where is everyone else? No matter how hard she tried to sleep, all she could think about was the ring on her finger. This had been her dream. She knew right after she started dating Rick that she would marry him, she was just waiting for him to ask. Her anger had now passes, she was more confused now. She turned over and was now looking at him, but his back was turned to her.

The same thoughts were going through Rick's head. What did this mean for their relationship? He rolled over, now facing her. The last time they were in bed like this was their last weekend together in the Hamptons. He was the first to break the silence.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked, almost in a whisper.

"Everything" she answered back. "We haven't spoke in almost a year and now were married. It just doesn't make sense to me."

She looked down at the ring on her hand, it was beautiful. It was a simple princess cut diamond set in white gold.

"Well, at least we have good taste while under the influence." she joked, pointing to the ring.

"I wasn't drunk when I picked that out.." he said back quietly.

"What?" Kate said, now even more confused.

"We didn't pick that out last night.. I've had it."

"What? Why?"

"Remember when we went to the Hamptons together? The weekend we….broke up? I was going to ask you to marry me that weekend, and when you left I put the ring in my suitcase and forgot about it."

She was in shock. 'Why did I leave that weekend? We could have been married by now' she thought to herself, still starring at him.

"Rick.." She was interrupted by her phone ringing, it was Lanie.

"Hey, girl! Were all down in the hotel restaurant just finishing up brunch, we wanted to know if you guy wanted to come to the pool with us?"

"Um..yeah. Sure." Kate answered. "I'll be down in a few minutes."

"Alright, see you then. Oh, do you know where Castle is? He's not answering his phone."

"No, I don't. I'll go check his room."

"Pool?" She asked quietly.

"Yeah. I take it as you don't want to tell anyone?" Castle asked with a smile on his face.

"Not now, lets just get this all sorted out first."

"I guess we should probably take these off then." Rick said, pulling the silver band off his finger.

* * *

After a relaxing day at the pool, Lanie, Jenny, Kate went up to Lanie's room and started to get ready for the wedding. Kate excused herself and went back to her room to get ready. She needed some alone time. At 6:00, the group met in the hotel lobby and got in the limo that Castle had arranged to pick them up. In the car, Ryan made a toast, "To my best friend, we all knew that you and Lanie were seeing each other behind our backs, and if you would have gotten married five months ago, I could have made some serious money off of the uniforms." Everyone laughed and took a sip of the champagne. The thought of drinking made Kate nauseous. When the arrived at the chapel, it was a very short drive, they could have walked, the group climbed out of the limo and made their way inside. They were greeted by an old man wearing a white tuxedo and a matching cowboy hat.

"Mr. Castle! Mrs. Castle! You came back to see me already?" The man said with excitement.

The whole group turned to look at Rick and Kate.

**Reviews are always welcome and appreciated. **


	3. Chapter 3

Rick and Kate stood there facing their friends in awe.

"Maybe now would be a good time to tell them." Rick joked.

"Shut up, Castle." Kate did not find him humorous.

Kate was staring at Lanie, who was also staring back at Kate. She couldn't tell if Lanie was upset, happy or just confused. Kate was now feeling a heavy weight pushing down on her shoulders. She didn't even know what was going to happen between her and Castle, let alone tell her friends. And to top it off, she didn't even remember what had happened..at all.

"Sweetie" Lanie said, "Do you have something you would like to share?"

"Preferably, no" Castle answered for Kate.

She was grateful that he stepped in for her, she had always loved him for that. They were interrupted by the man in the white tux.

"What lucky couple is getting married this time? Or are you two newly weds just here to pick up the pictures you ordered?" He asked them.

Oh god, Kate thought. Pictures.

"BOTH!" Esposito said with a smile across his face.

Lanie grabbed Kate's arm and pulled her back into the parking lot.

"What's going on Kate?" Lanie asked, making her question sound more like a demand.

"Lanie, if I knew, I would tell you. I don't remember anyting from last night."

"Well, what do you remember?"

"Last thing I remember from yesterday is walking into the casino with you and Jenny. Then this morning I woke up and Rick was on the floor, I thought it was you until I got your text saying you went back to Espo's room." Kate answered, embarrassment turning her face red.

"What are you going to do? Are you going to get an annulment?" Lanie asked in a concerned tone.

"I really don't know. Yesterday morning I woke up single, this morning I woke up married to Castle and having no recollection of it." Kate said.

Lanie pulled her in for a hug.

"I just thought that if I ever did marry Rick, it would be the happiest day of my life and I would remember it forever." Kate whispered into Lanie's shoulder.

* * *

Back inside, Castle was now pacing the floor. He could only imagine the things Lanie and Kate were talking about outside. They were close enough that he could see them, but too far to hear anything. All he could think is that he didn't want to loose Kate again. He had been foolish to give her an ultimatum. He knew that she would always have her mother's case in the back of her mind, nothing that he could say would ever make her stop trying to find the person who uprooted her entire life. He couldn't blame her though, he thought about if someone had murdered his mother, he would use every connection he had to find the guy who did it. He was pulled away from his thoughts when he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Ryan.

"How does it feel? Ryan asked.

"How does what feel?" Castle answered in confusion.

"To be married. Married to Beckett. We all knew you guys would eventually tie the knot."

"I wish I could say the same." Castle said, looking down at his hands, trying to make sense of this whole situation.

"What?" Ryan replied.

"I just didn't want this to happen. Not this way at least. We weren't even talking a week ago, and now we're married." Castle said. "And the worst part is, I don't even remember it. The last thing I remember is leaving the casino with you guys."

"I know you guys will figure this out, just talk to her." With that, Ryan patted Castle on the back and walked over to Esposito who was talking with Jenny.

"We need to have a little meeting when we get back, our genius plan backfired." Ryan whispered to Javi and Jenny.

* * *

Kate and Lanie walked back in after what felt like a lifetime of chatting outside. Kate's eyes were red and swollen, Castle could tell that she had been crying. He wished that he was the one outside with her instead of Lanie. He wised that he was the one who got to comfort her. And above all, he wished that he wasn't the one to cause her all this pain.

Lanie walked over to Jenny who was just coming out of the bathroom.

"Emergency group meeting back at the hotel." Lanie whispered to her friend.

"Already planned." Jenny said back.

After a short ceremony led by the owner of the chapel, the group headed to a bar that was down the strip. For how badly Kate wanted to drink way her pain, she couldn't bring herself to order anything other then a Diet Coke. Still nursing the hangover from last night, wanting nothing more then to go back to the hotel and cuddle up in bed, Kate sat at the end of the table with her friends. She watched how Jenny and Ryan sat close together, holding hands and giggling together, she saw how the just married couple snuck kisses from each other and shared their personal space. She was jealous. She almost wished that she was sitting that close to Rick, that he would hold her hand and everything would be okay again. But that wasn't going to happen, not now at least.

When everyone started to get tired, the group decided to walk back to the hotel since it was such a nice night. Jenny and Ryan went to their room, Lanie, who was originally staying with Kate, went back to Javier's room, where Castle was supposed to be staying. Javier gave Castle his suitcase and closed the door. 'Why didn't I just get my own room.' Rick said to himself, making his way back down to the check in desk.

* * *

"Hi, I need a room." Rick said to the man standing behind the desk.

"Alright, let me check" The man started to click away on his desktop computer. "I'm very sorry sir, but all of our rooms are booked."

"What? How can all the rooms be booked?"

"Well sir, this is a very popular weekend. Most colleges around the Las Vegas area are on spring break this week and this hotel offers a special discount for anyone who presents a student ID card." The man carried on. "We have over one hundred rooms booked for the spring break students and since they are a major profit, we also save some rooms for any stragglers who come in during the middle of the night. I'm very sorry for any inconvenience. Would you like me to call you a cab?"

"No, thank you." Rick answered, walking away.

Awesome. He thought to himself. Where was he going to stay now? He knew that Jenny and Ryan only had one bed in their room and his back was killing him from sleeping on the floor from last night, so he tried to avoid that situation. He sure as hell wasn't going to go back to Espo and Lanie's room, and that only left one person. Kate. He knew that she also only had one bed in her room, but they were adults right? They could sleep in the same bed without anything happening. He walked to the elevator and went up to Kate's floor. He knocked on the door and was surprised to see that she was still awake.

"Hi." She said, looking at him with a confused look.

What is he doing here? She thought to herself. She couldn't deal with their situation right now.

"I've got a problem" Rick said, staring at the floor. "I've kinda been kicked out of my room and the hotel is completly booked."

"Booked? This is a huge hotel."

"Yeah, I know. Something about spring break. But never mind, this was a bad idea. I'll go find another hotel." Rick said and started to walk away.

"Rick wait, were both adults. Come in." Kate said, opening the door for him.

While inside, he turned just to see her locking the door chain. The first thing he noticed was that she was wearing the ring he picked out.


	4. Chapter 4

As Kate slid the chain lock on the door into place, she realized that she had the ring on. She had not been expecting anyone to come pounding on her door last night, so she slid the ring back on her finger and was admiring it. It really was a beautiful ring. When Rick and her first started dating she had saw a ring like the one she was now wearing in a magazine and had stopped to look at it, but she quickly turned the page when she saw Rick walking by out of the corner of her eye. She figured that he just forgot about it and moved on, but he didn't. He found the page in the magazine and bought the ring for her, the one that she wanted. That was another thing she loved, used to love, about him. He always knew how to make her smile and he always knew what to do. Until now. She had hoped that he didn't notice that she was now wearing the ring, but she knew he had. He was the most attentive person she knew and he noticed everything about her.

"Are you sure it's okay if I stay in here? I really don't mind going somewhere else." Rick said, breaking their silence.

"No, Rick. It's fine. This will give us a chance to talk."

Oh no, Rick thought to himself. He was so tired, still hungover and all he wanted to do was to curl up in bed and go to sleep.

"Yeah, that sounds great." He answered back, but she could obviously tell he was lying.

"Do you mind if I take a shower first?" Kate asked.

"No, go ahead."

She made her way to the bathroom, closed the door and leaned against it. Was she nervous to talk to him? The man that drover her crazy for four years, the man who confessed his love to her over and over before she was ready, the man who waited for her to let her guard down and let him in?

No, she wasn't nervous. She was terrified. She turned on the shower as hot as it would go, threw her cloths on a pile on the floor and got in. The water was hot enough to boil but she still felt cold. After what had to be the longest shower of her life, Kate climbed out, dried off, brushed her teeth and put her pajamas on. Before exiting the bathroom, she just stared at herself in the mirror. Did she want to be married to Richard Castle?

She brought her hands up to her face, noticing the ring that was still on her finger. She didn't feel weird wearing it, she slid it off her finger and stared at it. Thats when she noticed the engraving, _Always, _was all it said. It brought a tear to her eye and she could feel herself getting choked up. If she wasn't scared before, she sure was now.

After wiping her eyes, Kate opened the door and made her way to the bed. Without saying anything, Rick grabbed his bag and went into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

Rick closed the bathroom door, and like Kate, leaned back against it. She was wearing the ring. What was he supposed to think about that? Did she want to stay married to him? This was all too much to deal with. They have been married for less than twenty-four hours and he was already beyond stressed.

He leaned into the shower and turned the hot water on full blast, the steam quickly filling up the small bathroom. He rid himself of his cloths and stepped into the shower. The hot water cascaded over his body, making the last remnants of last nights hangover slowly fade away. He thought about his marriages to Meredith and Gina. How happy he had been the day they got married, how happy he had been weeks after they got back from their honeymoon. Then his mind drifted back to Kate. He loved her, he had for the past five years, since that first day when she came crashing his book release party. Two years into their partnership, he knew that he would marry her. Just not this way. He pictured what their wedding would have looked like.

He imagined them getting married in a big church, or maybe a destination wedding. He had always loved Puerto Rico. He pictured himself standing on a sandy beach watching Jim Beckett walk his daughter down the isle, surrounded by only their closest friends and family. He pictured them waking up together every morning for the rest of their lives, maybe even having a baby, or two. All he wanted was to make her happy, to be able to give her anything she wanted. If she told him that she wanted a whole baseball team of kids, he would have been up for it.

He forced himself to stop imagining their life together, that ship has sailed. He turned off the shower, dried off and got dressed. He opened the bathroom door and walked out, Kate was already laying under the covers and he thought that she was asleep. She was very much awake though, thoughts running like a racehorse through her head. She knew that they needed to talk, but right now, all she needed was sleep. Maybe a good nights sleep would knock some sense into her.

Rick turned off the light in the bathroom and made his way to his side of the king size bed. Kate was all the way across the bed from him and he wanted nothing more then to pull her close. But that wasn't going to happen. He turned over to turn his phone on silent, they were now laying with their backs to each other, and what felt like miles apart in this huge bed. Rick rested his head on the pillow and closed his eyes. The will sort this out tomorrow, right now, sleep.

**Reviews are greatly appreciated :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you to everyone who is following this story!**

**I know that most of my chapters are short but thats how I like them, I like to keep you guys coming back for more. **

**Happy reading :)**

**Unfortunately, I do not own any of these characters. **

Rick slowly drifted off to sleep, he could hear Kate's breathing slowly steady out, he knew she was asleep.

He dreamt of their last weekend as a couple. They had drove out to Rick's house in the Hamptons for a weekend alone. Kate had started working back at the precinct, it was her first weekend off in god knows how long. The day they were supposed to leave, Rick got a phone call. It was a very nervous Ryan, "Kate was shot" was all he could get out.

Rick grabbed his keys off the counter and drove to the hospital. Ryan and Esposito were sitting in the waiting room.

"What happened?" Rick said franticly.

"She caught a break on her mom's case, and stormed out of the prescient." Espo said.

"Was she alone?" Rick asked, sounding more like a demand.

"She left alone, we tried to follow her but we made a wrong turn" Ryan answered. "When we finally caught up to her, the guy pulled out a gun and shot her. And then got away."

"Where? Where was she shot?" Rick asked, almost crying.

"Her left arm, it looked like a through and through but I couldn't tell at the scene." Javier answered.

"Detectives," A white haired doctor wearing dark blue scrubs emerged from the double doors of the emergency room. "Were taking Detective Beckett up to surgery now.

"Surgery? Why does she need surgery?" Rick asked.

"The bullet hit her bone and shattered it. We need to take her up to surgery as soon as possible to put a metal plate into whats left of her bone to hold it in place. After that her arm will be in a cast but she will eventually heal fine."

"Thank you doctor." Was all Rick could get out.

Rick made his way outside of the emergency room doors to get some fresh air. He called his mother, who was at an acting retreat in Michigan. She reassured him that Kate was one of the strongest person she knew and that she would be fine. He agreed with her, said their goodbyes and he heard her click the phone off. He next called Jim Beckett, Kate's father. He informed him of what was happening and that Kate was in surgery now and that she should be out anytime now. Jim was in Florida visiting one of his friends, Rick assured him that Kate was going to be fine and that there was no need for him to ruin his trip to come sit in a hospital room. Jim decided, after a lot of convincing, that Rick was right. Rick promised to call Jim with any updates and they said goodbye and hung up.

Right after slipping his phone back in his pocket, he felt it vibrating. He was getting a call from Alexis. "KATE'S BEEN SHOT!" was the first thing she said to him, not even letting him get out a 'hello'. Kate and Alexis had become very close over the past year. Kate was like a mom to Alexis, she had almost spent more time with Kate over the past year than she had spent with Meredith in her whole life. Rick calmed the girl down and informed her on what was happening. He listened to his only daughter cry on the other end of the phone for what felt like a lifetime. He wanted her to be here with him, but she was at college and had an exam in the morning. After confirming with his daughter that Kate would be fine, he hung up the phone and stuck it in his coat pocket. Inside the same pocket was a small box. He pulled the black box out of his pocket and opened it. He was going to ask her to marry him tonight, but that obviously wasn't going to happen. He was staring at the ring when he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Esposito. Great, this was supposed to be a surprise.

"Congratulations, man." Espo said, patting Rick on the back.

"Congratulations are not in order yet, Esposito." Rick joked.

"Come on man, we all know she's going to say 'yes'! And if you will, don't announce it to anyone at the prescient until the 18th of this month, thats my day for the pool." Javier said with a smile on his face.

"You guys are ridiculous." Rick said with a laugh. "And Espo? Can you keep this a secret? I didn't want anyone to know before Kate and I wanted us to tell you guys all together."

"Of course. Now come back in, I think I just saw the doctor walk back out."

The doctor told them that they put a metal plate in Kate's arm and put a cast on it. He also said that she was shot through and through so her stay in the hospital would be shorter. The doctor led Rick back to Kate's room where she was slowly waking up. He was overcome by emotion when he saw her smile at him. He was so happy that she was okay but angry at her at the same time. He was angry that she didn't wait for back up to come with her. But just seeing her alive was all that mattered now.

After a four day stay in the hospital, Kate checked herself out. Even though she should have stayed a few more days, she couldn't take laying in a bed anymore. She just wanted to go home.

Captain Gates told Kate that she was not allowed back to work for a few weeks. Kate willingly agreed and hung up the phone. After a week, Kate was feeling like her old self again. Half of her arm was wrapped in a cast but she still made it around the house just fine. She suggested to Rick that they take a few days and go up to the Hamptons like they had planed to. Rick agreed and they started packing their bags.

Once they arrived at his beach house, the sun was just setting. Kate's arm started to hurt so she took one of the pain pills the doctor had prescribed, which put her to sleep in no time.

The next morning she woke up and saw that Rick was already sitting outside by the pool, typing away on his laptop. After changing into a bathing suit she went out and greeted him. They laid out in the sun until a storm started to blow through. They grabbed their things and ran back inside, taking shelter from the rain. They laid on the couch together, Rick was running his fingers over the cast that she rested on his stomach.

"I was really worried about you." Rick confessed. "My heart sunk when I got the call from Ryan."

"I know you were, but I was so close Rick. If he wouldn't have shot me, I would have got him. But now I know what kind of car he drives and I remember the first three digits of his license plate so it will be easier to find him next time."

"Next time..?" Rick asked in a confused tone. "Youre going to go after this guy again?"

"Well, yeah.

"Are you joking? He has already shot you, beat you up and thrown you off a building, letting you dangle there." Rick said, now sitting up. "How much more can you take? The next time this guy sees you Kate, he will kill you."

"No Rick, I'm not joking. This is what I became a cop for. To catch the guy who MURDERED my mother and left her in an ally." Kate yelled, now standing up.

"I can't sit around and watch you do this to yourself Kate, I love you too much to let yourself get killed."

"You don't have to sit around and watch. Nobody is forcing you to be with me."

"You don't mean that, do you?" Rick asked, feeling a knot building in his throat. "You're choosing your job over me?"

"Don't make me choose Rick, you know what the outcome will be, and you're not going to like it." Kate said back.

She was really regretting where this conversation was going. But she couldn't let him stop her. She had been so close! If she would have pulled her gun out three seconds earlier, the guy would have been either dead or in jail, either one she was happy with. He was the guy who tore her life apart, broke her father down and ran her life into a brick wall. How did Rick expect her to drop this case? She had been working on it for most of her life.

"Kate, you don't mean tha.."

"No Castle, I do." Kate cut him off "This is what I do, I solve murders. I thought you knew what you were signing up for when you started dating me but you obviously didn't."

"Where does this leave us then Beckett?"

Great, back to last names, she thought to herself.

"I guess were done then Castle, I'm not going to drop my mother's case and if that means getting beat up and shot a few more times, I'm okay with it. And I know you're not, so I guess were over." She said, walking upstairs to get her suitcase. She sat down and called a taxi. They told her that they would be there in ten minutes. She texted Lanie, '_I need to talk to you, asap.'_ was all she said.

The cab arrived and she left the house, when she turned to close the door, she saw Rick sanding on the back porch, head in his hands. She could tell he was crying. Her heart sunk, knowing that she was the one to cause him all that pain. The cab driver honked the horn and she closed the door, walking out of Rick's life forever, or what she thought was going to be forever.

**Reviews are greatly appreciated :) **


	6. Chapter 6

**Thank you guys for reading! **

**If I did own these characters, do you think it would have taken them 4 seasons to get together? **

Ryan and Jenny were awaken at the crack of dawn by loud pounding on their hotel door. Ryan crawled out of bed and opened the door to find Lanie and Esposito.

"We need to talk, now." Lanie said, pushing her way past Ryan and pulling Espo with her.

"Good morning to you too, please, do come in." Ryan mumbled, closing the door behind them. Jenny was now awake and was starting to make a pot of coffee.

"This bad, real bad." Lanie exclaimed. "They got married, MARRIED! All I was hoping for is a date, just a few hours for them to talk. I sure the hell was not expecting them to get married!"

"What are they going to do about it?" Ryan asked.

"Kate has no clue what she wants to do, and I'm pretty sure Castle doesn't know either" Lanie answered.

"Maybe this is what Castle had in mind when he found out Beckett was coming…" Esposito said, almost in a whisper.

"What do you know, Javier?" Jenny asked, now passing out cups of coffee.

"I really shouldn't be telling you guys this" Espo said looking up from his coffee only to find his friends giving him the death glare. "But given our current situation, I guess I can tell you. Remember like a year ago when Beckett got shot and have to have a metal plate put into her arm? Well, while Beckett was in surgery, I saw Castle standing outside, calling his mom and Beckett's dad. I went outside after he hung up the phone and he was holding a little black box. He told me that he was going to purpose that weekend but they never made it to the Hamptons. About a week after that, when Beckett was still on leave, Castle came into the prescient to talk to me. He said that Kate had agreed to go to the Hamptons with him that weekend and he was finally going to ask her to marry him, but when she came home, she wasn't engaged, and she had left Castle there."

"You've waited this long to tell us this?" Ryan, Lanie and Jenny almost said in unison.

"I was looking out for my friend, even though he annoyed all of us, he was a great guy, he still is a great guy. I didn't want it to get out to Beckett that he was going to pop the question that weekend. She already seemed hurt enough, I didn't want anything to make it worse." Esposito said, trying to defend himself. "I knew that Castle knew Beckett was coming, but I don't think Beckett knew Castle was coming. Ryan and I never mention him at work so I don't even think she knew that we still hung out after they broke up."

"Do you think Rick had this planned?" Jenny asked.

"I honestly could not tell you." Lanie answered. "I knew he wanted to marry her, and she wanted to marry him too. But that was a year ago. They both hurt each other, badly, when they broke up. I've only heard Kate's side of the story but from what I can tell, Rick was beyond crushed. But now look at them. They got married, in Vegas, while they were both drunk; so drunk that neither of them can remember anything. If they end up getting divorced or what ever, I almost feel like I'm to blame."

"We're all to blame, it wasn't just your idea to get them both out of the city, get a few drinks in them and then make them 'accidentally' run into each other." Jenny responded.

After hours of talking, the group decided to go out to breakfast since none of them were going to be able to fall back asleep after the conversation that just took place. They tried to call Kate but it went straight to voicemail, they also tried to call Castle. They could hear his phone ringing in the room next to Ryan and Jenny's.

"Isn't that..um..Castle's ringtone?" Ryan asked, being the first to break the awkward silence as they all stared at the wall. As to hope that they could see through it and figure out why Castle was in Kate's room. "And isnt that Beckett's room?"

"Yes and Yes." Espo answered. "Did he go back in there last night?"

"He did sleep in there after their little wedding rendezvous." Lanie answered.

With that, Esposito and Lanie walked out of the room to find a table downstairs. Ryan and Jenny changed into more acceptable cloths then followed them down the stairs to the hotel restaurant.

* * *

In the room next door, nobody was thinking about breakfast. Rick was jolted awake by his dream, a reacquiring nightmare that he seemed to be having more and more lately. He tried to sit up, but he couldn't. He looked over his shoulder only to find Kate with her arm draped around his stomach and her legs intertwined with his. He was laying in the same position as he was when he fell asleep, meaning that Kate was the one to move across the bed to be close to him.

He put his head back down on the pillow, thinking about what this could possibly mean. Did this small gesture mean that she wanted to give this marriage a shot? After all, she was still wearing the ring. That had to mean something, right? And she was the one to cross the overly humungous bed, making her way into his embrace.

Or could it just mean that she rolled over in her sleep? They had never slept like this when they were dating, he was always the one to hold her in his arms, not the other way around. It probably just means nothing, but what if it did?

He settled back into his spot, pulling the covers back up to his neck. He laid there for a while, not being able to fall back asleep. He could feel Kate's soft breaths on his back. What have I got to loose? He thought to himself, rolling over so now they were face to face. He put his hand over her back and pulled her closer. Even in her sleep, she wrapped her arm around him, embracing his warmth. Her head was tucked into his chest, in her spot; or at least what used to be her spot. He could hear her softly breathing, the sound whisking him off to sleep.

* * *

Kate hadn't been sleeping, she obviously wasn't sleeping. How could she sleep while he was shaking in his sleep, having a nightmare that was obviously about her? She could hear him mumbling her name and 'don't go.' It broke her heart that almost a year after they broke up, he still dreamt about her. She debated on whether or not to get too close to him, she didn't want to sent any mixed signals. She didn't even know what signals she was sending.

But eventually, she gave in. She couldn't stand to watch him shake anymore. He was facing away from her, so she couldn't see his face. She slid up behind him and gently put her arm around his stomach, feeling the muscles contract and release with her touch. Thats when he had woken up. He had tried to sit up but she wouldn't let him go, she couldn't let him go.

Rick was the greatest man she had ever been with, ever met, in her whole life. He would do anything for her. And even though that scared her to death, it also warmed her heart. Even a year after they broke up, she had not been on a date, let alone in a relationship with anyone else. She could never get over him. How could she date anyone else after Richard Castle? She couldn't.

She wanted nothing more than to go to bed with him, be held by him and wake up next to him every day, for the rest of her life. She just didn't expect 'forever' to happen so fast.

It was the best feeling in the world when Rick rolled over and pulled her close. She wanted to stay there forever, being held by Rick. Being held by her husband.

**Reviews are greatly appreciated :)**


	7. Chapter 7

**Thank you to everyone who is following this story, I love you all.**

**Unfortunately, I do not own these characters. **

Kate was awaken by Rick crawling out of bed to answer his phone.

"Hi Julia.. Yes, I miss you to" he said, before exiting the room and going into the hallway.

Julia? Kate thought to herself. Who's Julia. Did Rick have a girlfriend…? Is that why he had been so quiet all day, trying to avoid the topic of their marriage completely? Was he in love with this Julia? Does this mean were going to get divorced? All of the possible thoughts ran rapidly through her head. She had never heard Rick mention anyone names Julia when they were dating so she probably wasn't working on his next book with him. So who was she? Her only conclusion is that Rick had a girlfriend in New York. She laid back down and pulled the comforter over her head, choking back tears.

* * *

In the hallway Rick was talking to his girlfriend, Julia. He knew that he should have called her before and ended things with her. They had only been dating for a month, and Julia could tell that Rick was always holding something back. She knew that he had been in a very serious relationship before her, so she just ignored his strange behavior and moved on.

"Listen Julia, we need to talk about something" Rick said into the phone.

"When are you coming home? I miss you so much" Julia answered, avoiding his question.

"No, Julia, I'm serious. We need to talk, like now"

"What's wrong Rick? You sound upset?"

"Do you remember Kate Beckett..?"

"Um..yeah? Your EX-girlfriend." Julia answered, putting extra emphasis on the ex.

"Well she's here."

"You slept with her, didn't you Rick?" Julia demanded.

"No!" Rick exclaimed. "Well actually, I don't know. That is what I called to talk to you about."

"I'm listening"

"When I got here with Esposito and Ryan, I didn't know that she was going to be here." Rick said, lying through his teeth. Kate was Lanie's best friend. She was obviously going to be there. "And then the first night we were here, we all went out to a casino and had a few drinks. We ran into Lanie, Kate, Jenny and Lanie's two friends later that night and thats where things start to go blurry. The next morning we woke up and we were married."

"You're what?"

"Yeah, married." Rick said softly.

"What are you going to do about this little problem, Rick?"

"I don't know yet. But I can't take the chance of loosing her again. And I'm sorry I waited so long to tell you this. And I'm sorry I'm breaking up with you over the phone but I feel bad leading you on knowing that our relationship could never go anywhere. I think I dove into our relationship too soon and I wasn't ready for it. I just thought that having a new love interest in my life, it would help me get over Kate faster, but I can't do that. I'll never be over her. I'm so sorry Julia."

"I knew this would happen Rick, I know your track record. I should have realized you would do this to me before we started dating. I have to go now, have fun with your wife."

Before he could even say goodbye, the phone clicked off. "That could have gone better" Rick whispered to himself. But it was over, he could not start his journey back into Kate's arms without feeling anymore guilty then he already did. When he walked back into the hotel room, he noticed that Kate was laying on the other side of the bed, the opposite spot of where he had left her. Had she heard him answer the phone? Does she think that he is still with Julia? This day just keeps getting better and better.

He crawled back into bed and moved close to Kate, putting his arm around her stomach like she had done to him last night. When he touched her, she pulled away.

"Don't Castle." She whispered to him.

"Kate.."

"No, you have a girlfriend. Its fine. We'll go home and get this whole thing taken care of."

"Kate, listen to me. Please."

With that, she turned over into him, she had tears rolling down her face. "Oh, Kate" Rick said, before pulling her close into him. Her head was resting on his shoulder and she pulled him in too.

"What about your girlfriend?" Kate whispered into his ear.

"I wouldn't really call her my girlfriend, she was just a plug to fill the hole left in my heart." He felt her grip loosen around his waist. "But it's over. I ended things with her. I've been meaning to do it for a while now, I just never had the right reason to do so. And now you, you're the perfect reason."

She didn't know if that was a compliment or if he was blaming her for breaking up with his girlfriend.

"We still need to talk, Rick."

"I know, I know. Can we do it later? Right now I just want to sleep."

"Yeah, but promise me that we wont walk out of this hotel room until this whole situation is settled?"

"Promise" Rick whispered, pulling her even closer. Within minutes she could hear his breathing steady out, he was asleep.

* * *

Rick and Kate were awaken by phone calls and banging on the hotel door. Kate broke herself from Rick's embrace and went to answer the door. It was Lanie, Espo, Ryan and Jenny.

"What are you doing girl? We have to go." Lanie said.

"Go where?" Kate answered.

"Um..our flight is in a hour." Ryan explained. "Were already running late."

"It's 3:00 already!" Kate exclaimed. "Just..hang on." Before her friends could respond, Kate had pushed to door closed and was running back to the bedroom.

"Rick. Rick wake up." She said, shaking Castle until he came to his senses.

"What are you doing? Go back to sleep."

"Rick, get up! Were going to miss our flight!"

"It's fine. I already called the airline and switched my flight to tomorrow, I did the same for yours. I was serious when I promised that we wouldn't leave this room until we talked this through. Now come back to bed."

"I have to work tomorrow."

"No, you don't. Unless you used your two months of vacation days you've been racking up for the last decade, your fine. Come back to bed."

"I'm going to kill you, Castle." Kate said, walking back to the door to explain her current situation to her friends.

"I guess I'm not leaving.." Kate said, opening the door.

"What do you mean 'not leaving'?" Jenny asked.

"I have vacation days, Castle changed the tickets, were married. It's just a...big mess." Kate said, dropping her head into her hands. "But I'm fine. You guys go. I'll text you when we leave."

"The second you step foot in New York, we are having a little talk." Lanie said, stepping closer to Kate and pulling her into a hug.

"Yeah, I figured." Kate said, hugging Lanie back.

"If writer boy is holding you hostage, just say the word, we'll take him down." Javier joked.

"You guys should get going, I wouldn't want all of us to not show up for work tomorrow." Kate said, hugging her friends and saying goodbye.

She closed the door and leaned against it. Now what? She thought. Her friends had been a diversion to their situation and now they were gone, heading back home, without her.

She needed to talk to him, now. She walked back into the bedroom and laid back down on the bed. Rick was already sleeping, what was the harm in waiting a few more hours, right? The thick hotel room curtains kept the room dark and the air conditioner hummed, keeping the room just cold enough for a blanket. She curled up next to him and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

When she woke, he was staring at her.

"Still weird, Rick." she whispered. He leaned up to her and kissed her, his lips kissing her bottom lip, she wrapped her hands around his neck and pulled him close until he pulled away.

"Hi." He said, resting his forehead against hers.

"Hi." She whispered back.

"What time is it?" He asked her. Kate rolled over and checked her phone that was sitting on the nightstand.

"Almost 5:30" She answered. "I guess we laid in bed all day."

"I'm not complaining" Rick said, burying his head in her neck. "Want to get something for dinner?"

"Yeah, Chinese?"

"Of course. Then we can talk." Rick grabbed his phone off his night stand and started looking online to find a Chinese food restaurant that delivered. After he ordered, he laid back down next to Kate.

"I'm going to take a shower before the food gets here." Kate said.

"Alright."

Kate made her way to the bathroom and closed the door. They could make this work, couldn't they? They had to, she had always said that she was going to get married once, and be done. She had once hoped that Rick would be her 'one and done', and she wasn't going to let Vegas ruin that plan for her.

She turned the hot water on, took of her cloths and stepped into the shower. The hot water running over her cold skin. Thats when she heard the door squeak open, Rick was in there.

He opened the shower curtain, after stripping his cloths off, and looked at Kate. She was looking back at him.

"In or out" Kate playfully said.

"In" Castle said, almost jumping into the shower. "Defiantly in."

He grabbed her and pulled her close to him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down to kiss him. They stood there, for what felt like hours, just kissing and holding each other close. He moved his arms up and down her back, re-exploring her body. Kate was now leaning against the shower wall, pulling Rick closer to her.

"Kate" Rick whispered. "Are you sure you want to do this? I mean given our current situa.."

"Yes, Rick. I'm sure." Kate said, cutting him off.

He turned off the shower and grabbed a towel, drying her off and letting her do the same for him. They walked out of the bathroom and into the bedroom. Once she felt the backs of her knees touching the bed, she let them fall together. He kissed her neck and made trails of kisses down her arms.

Thats when they heard a loud pounding on the door.

"Foods here." Kate whispered. Getting up off the bed and throwing cloths on.

"Really?" Rick whispered. "This really couldn't be any worse timing." He slipped his boxers back on and made his way out to the living room. Kate was already sitting at the small table, opening the cartons.

"So.." Rick said. "Want to talk about this now?"

"Yeah, that would be great." Kate said, handing him the wonton soup.

**Reviews are greatly appreciated :) **


	8. Chapter 8

**Thank you to everyone who has been following this story, it makes me unbelievably happy when my email is filled with notifications from you guys.**

They sat there, staring at each other, eating their dinner and thinking about what could possibly happen to their relationship in their upcoming conversation.

"So.." Rick said, breaking the now awkward silence. "We're married."

"Yes, yes we are. How do you feel about that?"

"Well...I..umm...how do you feel about it?" Rick replied, grabbing another piece of sesame chicken from the take out box.

"I asked you first."

"I..I don't know. I can't really put it into words. I mean, I guess this is what I envisioned..but I thought that ship had sailed."

"Hmm.."

"'Hmm' what?"

"I guess this is what I had planed too, just defiantly not now and not like this."

"This is really not how I planned this weekend to go."

"You and me both." Kate said jokingly.

They were sitting at the small table in the hotel room, both sitting on either side of the window. All Rick could think about was a third divorce. _Third_. They were distracted by five cop cars, flying down the road the window was overlooking.

"Hows work going?" Rick asked cautiously.

"It's going. I got a new partner."

"You..you what?"

"After I came back to the prescient after getting shot, Gates told me that the only way I could go back into the field was if I had a partner." Kate explained her situation to him, watching the smile on his face turn into a frown. She felt bad for him, he had been her partner for almost five years. "So, I sucked it up and now I'm stuck with a detective that was just transferred to the twelfth from Rhode Island. Turns out that Rhode Island murders don't hold a candle to New York Murders."

The look on Ricks face was unbearable. She knew that he was thinking about this new guy, trying to protect her life. It didn't take much to realize that he was hurt. When Ian Johnson was first assigned to Kate, she hated the idea of working with anyone other then Castle. But he wasn't there anymore and she did feel safer having someone with a gun backing her up. Their first case together was the murder of Suzanne Cation. She had been a teacher at a local school. They found her body in her classroom, she had been raped, beaten and hanged. Her co-workers were the ones to find her and call 911.

It seamed like the perfect murder. The found numerous sets of prints in the classroom but they were all from the 29 kids in her class and the teachers who often came into her classroom. The video cameras that lined the hallways of the school were all shut down at night, during this recession, the district couldn't afford to leave any of the lights on in the building after dark.

Ian was the one who cracked the case. Suzanne had never clocked out from work that day, which meant she had never left. She had also been having an affair with the principal, and when she told him that she was not going to leave her husband for him, he was furious. He killed her then got scared and tried to make it look like a suicide.

After cracking their first case, Ian offered to take Kate out for celebratory drinks. It had only been three months since Castle and her broke up, just hearing him ask her to go out for a drink after solving this case made her want to break down. She politely declined and went home, filled the bath with hot water and cried.

"So..you got a partner?" Rick asked, not bothering to look up from his plate.

Oh no, she thought to herself, she didn't want to hurt him. She wasn't even planning on telling him that she had a new partner, it just slipped out. "Yeah." She answered, so quiet that he could barley hear her.

"I thought..I was just...I thought I was your partn-. Never mind." Rick said, now getting up to throw away the cardboard containers that were scattered around the table.

"Rick, don't."

"It's nothing Kate. Just forget I said anything."

"No, Rick. I can't forget you said something. I can tell you're hurt, and I never wanted to do that to you. I'm sorry."

"It's fine Kate, you need a partner. Someone that can keep you safe. You haven't been shot or locked in a freezer so I guess this Johnson guy is doing a pretty good job." He said, forcing a smile.

Great. Now he was mad at her. She was hoping that he would calm down before she asked him the big question of the night, even bigger then if they were going to stay married or not. What she really needed to know was if they had sex the night that they got married. She had been running late the day that Lanie picked her up to go to the airport, she hadn't had time to go to the pharmacy and get her birth control pills.

"Want some coffee?" Kate asked Rick as she watched him climb back onto the bed, now turning on a movie.

"Sure."

She stood in the small kitchen and started to make a pot of coffee. Watching Rick sit in bed after dinner, staying in bed all day and making coffee had a sense of nostalgia to it. Once the coffee was done brewing, she poured it into two cups. Making his the way he liked it and then hers. She gave him the cup and then sat down on the bed next to him.

He could feel her warmth on his arm. The way her hand lingered on his for an extra second after she gave him the cup. He could still feel her touch on his arm from when she got on the bed. He was a goner. "What do you want to watch?" He asked Kate.

"It doesn't matter to me."

"Want to watch 'What Happens in Vegas?" Rick said with a laugh.

"You're kidding right?"

"Do you have any better ideas, detective?"

"No..push play."

They laid in bed and watched the movie, thinking about how much the characters related to their current situation. Kate knew that they could work this thing out. They had worked through a million other things together, why not this one. They were locked in a freezer, put in front of a bomb that could have destroyed the city and shot at, more than once. They had to work this one out. She could barley keep her hands off him as it is. Kate had to keep scooting further and further away so she could finish watching the movie. We'll get through this, she thought to herself. We always do.

Rick noticed that Kate was moving away from him, which made him even more confused. Just a few hours ago, he was in the shower with her and after that they were laying on the bed, naked. Now she was putting distance between them when they were fully clothed.

Rick's train of thought was inturpted when his phone started to ring. When he looked down, he saw Alexis' name and a picture of her face. He smiled and stood up to walk out of the room.

"Hi sweetie!" Rick exclaimed into the phone.

"Hey dad!" Alexis answered, sounding very happy to talk to him.

"How are you? I feel like I haven't talked to you in ages!"

"I'm great, I just finished my exam for my anthropology class and now I'm walking to the library now. How was your flight home?"

"Well.. I'm not home yet."

"What? I thought your flight was this morning?" Alexis asked, sounding confused.

"It's a long story Lex. I'm going to get a few things figured out and then I'll be home and I'll tell you the whole story. Okay?"

"Alright, dad. Are you okay? You sound upset."

"Yes, yes. I'm fine. And I'm not upset, confused is a better word."

"Is this about seeing Kate? I overheard her and Lanie talking the other day, I knew she was going to be there."

"It's kind of about Kate. I would have to tell you the whole story for you to understand."

"Okay, dad. I'm looking forward to this story when you get home. But I'm walking into the library now and they have a no cell phone policy so I have to go."

"Alright sweetie, I love you."

"Love you too dad, bye."

Before Rick had a chance to say goodbye, his daughter had already hung up. He turned back to face the room, the movie had ended while he was on the phone with Alexis and now the end credits were rolling. He knew he had to figure out what he was going to do. Was he going to get on a plane with a wife? Or was he going to get on the plane with pile of divorce papers?

"Hey, Kate, can we finish that talk now?" He said, walking back into the room.

Kate turned the t.v. off and sat up. "Yeah, I was hoping you would say that.

**Reviews are greatly appreciated :)**


	9. Chapter 9

**Thank you to everyone who keeps coming back for more. **

**Once more, I do not own these characters. **

On the other side of the country, Lanie, Esposito, Ryan and Jenny were getting off the plane. Lanie and Jenny walked in front of Ryan and Epso, chatting about the small reception they were going to have the following weekend.

"I still can't believe this." Ryan said.

"I know, I'm married. To Lanie."

"Not that, I can't believe that Beckett and Castle are married!"

"Really, bro? You had to have some kind of feeling that they were going to eventually get back together."

"I guess, I just didn't think they would get back together this weekend, and then get married."

"It's crazy. I'm more surprised that Beckett hasn't killed Castle for marrying her."

"I'm surprised that Beckett hasn't killed Castle for waiting so long to marry her!"

They both laughed and continued to walk to the baggage claim. Lanie and Jenny didn't even stop at the carousal, Leaving Javier and Ryan to carry all the bags.

"Don't worry guys, we've got this!" Javier yelled to the women who were now sitting on a bench waiting for them.

"We were gone for a weekend and Lanie packed four bags. Four!" Esposito exclaimed.

"Jenny packed two and I'm pretty sure one of them just had shoes in it."

Of course, their bags were the last ones to come out. Esposito grabbed Lanie's four back and his one, making it very difficult to walk. Ryan took Jenny's two back and his bag, strapping them all together to the one bag that had wheels on it. They made their way to Jenny and Lanie who were now laughing at them.

"We trained you well." Jenny said as her and Lanie stood up and continued walking.

"Don't worry, honey. These are not heavy or anything." Ryan joked as he and Javier struggled to carry the obscenely heavy bags.

The four made their way to the shuttle that was waiting to take them to the parking lot that their cars were in. They loaded all of their things in the van and made their way to the parking lot. Once they arrived at their cars, they all said their goodbyes and went home.

* * *

Once more, they were in this awkward situation. Just looking at each other, both waiting for the other one to say something enlightening.

"What do you want to do?" Kate said, breaking the silence.

"What do I want to do as in watch another movie? Or stay married to you? Because I'm up for either one."

Kate almost spit out her coffee, did he really just say that he wanted to stay married to her?

"But of course if thats not what you want then…" Rick said.

"No"

"No, what?"

"No, I think that is what I want."

"So yes, were going to stay married?"

"Yeah. I guess we are." Kate said with a small smile. "Unless that is not what you want and you just said you did to hear my honest opinion."

"I meant it." Rick said, not holding back his smile anymore.

"So, we're going to do this? Be married?"

"Yeah. It may not have been the way we planned but it was my plan."

"It was my plan too." Kate said, leaning over to kiss him.

"Hi" He said softly.

"Hi" she said back, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him into a hug.

They laid down on the bed, his arms holding her close and her head on his chest.

"What are we going to tell everybody?" Kate mumbled into his shirt.

"Well, we could just tell them the truth?"

"I can picture it now, 'Hi dad, guess what! Rick and I got really drunk in Vegas and got married. Surprise!'" Kate joked.

"Yeah, I guess that does sound kind of bad."

"We could not tell them."

"I think that they might find out. I talked to Alexis earlier and she knows something is up. And we both know how fast gossip spreads around the precinct. If Alexis overhears Lanie talking in the lab, she'll tell my mother, and once my mother knows, the whole population will know also."

"I guess that would be worse then telling them the truth. Maybe we can wait a while to tell them? We can tell Lanie, Espo and Ryan not to bring it up at work and then go from there." Kate said, absentmindedly tracing circles on Rick's arm. "It will give us a chance to see where we really stand, once were back in reality."

"Sounds like a plan." Rick said, kissing her forehead.

They laid there for a while, just being with each other. Now Kate was thinking about when they broke up. Could Rick handle her working in the field? Could he handle her working in the field, with another partner? Once they broke up, Kate promised Gates that Castle wasn't going to be roaming around anymore of her crime scenes. And with all that Gates has done for Kate over the past year, could she really break that promise?

But then again, Gates had been in the 'when will they finally get engaged pool' with the guys. She had caught Gates slipping Esposito a $50 one day after work and claiming the days that she wanted. Gates had to figure that Castle would be back. It may have taken a year, but he was back. She wanted things to go back to how they were, him following her around at work, driving her crazy. Both of them going home together, eating dinner together, waking up together, going back to the precinct together.

"Rick, can I ask you something?" Kate said, looking up at him.

"Of course."

"Are we going to be able to do this if I keep working?"

"Working on murders or working on your moms case?"

"Both." Kate said honestly.

"You're going to go after the guys who shot you, twice, again?"

"Yes." Kate said, now regretting her decision to ask him. She could tell that this conversation was going to lead to a conversation that sounded much like the one they had the night they broke up. "I want to find the guy who killed my mom so bad Rick, he ruined my life."

"I know he did," Rick said calmly. "But think of the people who love you now, think about how hurt we will all be if something happens to you."

"I know it's a risk, but it's a risk that I'm willing to take. As of now, I have no leads, no evidence, no anything. I've been at a standstill since the night I was shot in the arm. Espo and Ryan put out an APB that night for the car Maddox was driving, and when the Jersey police called it in, the car had been abandoned. Wiped down clean of prints. For all we know, he could be in a different country. The only thing that I do know is that he's coming after me. I'm the only person that's still alive, and I'll find him before he finds me."

"We'll find him." Rick whispered into her hair. "I just don't want to loose you again."

"We?" Kate said, trying not to smile.

"Well, I cant have my wife running around the city after a killer alone, now can I?"

"Thank you" Kate said, hugging him tighter. "And I don't want to loose you again either."

Soon after that they both fell asleep, little did they know that Cole Maddox wasn't in a different country, he wasn't even in a different state. He was in New York, waiting for Kate Beckett to come back from her cross country trip.

**Reviews are greatly appreciated :) **


	10. Chapter 10

**Thank you guys for coming back for more!**

**I don't know what happened to the spacing on this story, it looked strange when I uploaded it. And I've been trying to upload a chapter a day, so this one is a little late. Happy reading :)**

**If I did own these characters, which I don't, they would have been together a long time ago. **

"I'm never going to get used to that, ya know." Kate said in a hazy state. She woke up to find Rick laying on his side, looking at her.

"But you look so cute when you sleep. And you're not yelling at me, so it's even cuter." Rick joked, leaning in to kiss her forehead.

"Shut up." She said, swatting his arm. "What time is it?"

"7:30."

"This is my last day off and you wake me up at 7:30?"

"Hey, I didn't wake you up."

"I could feel you looking at me, so you kind of woke me up." Kate smiled up at him. "Lets go back to sleep now and later I'll give you the joy of buying me breakfast."

"Sounds great." Rick said, watching Kate snuggle back into his side.

* * *

"Your right, that is kinda creepy." Rick said, waking up to find Kate staring at him.

"I told you."

Kate was now sitting up, she leaned down and kissed him.

"Good morning." She whispered, his lips still lingering around hers.

"Good morning indeed."

"What time is it now?" Kate asked.

Rick rolled over and grabbed his phone off the night stand, "It's 10:30." He replied.

"Breakfast?"

"I'll order room service. Pancakes?"

"Of course pancakes."

Rick called room service and ordered their meals. Within ten minutes, there was a nock on their door with their breakfast. They sat at the small table and ate in comfortable silence.

"Ready to go back home?" Rick asked Kate.

"Honestly, no. I'm not ready to face everyone yet, I'm still kind of on edge on everything that has happened."

"It's okay, we can take as much time as we need to tell everyone."

"I don't exactly know if I can do that." Kate mumbled.

"What do you mean? It was your idea to wait, right?"

She thought about how to form her next question without sounding insane. She didn't even know if they had sex or not. But what if she was pregnant? Did he want kids now? Because she sure as hell wasn't ready for marriage and babies all in one weekend. They never really talked about kids when they were dating, she always assumed that he was content with his one kid. Now what was she going to do? She debated waiting until she took a pregnancy test, but that was too far away.

"Whats wrong, Kate?" Rick asked, with a strong sense of concern in his voice.

"I need to ask you something.." Kate asked, pausing frequently. "Did we...um…have sex after we got married?"

"I really couldn't tell you, why?

"Hypothetically, if we did, would you have wore a…"

"Hypothetically, no. I didn't bring any with me." Rick answered, giving Kate the strangest look.

"Don't you always carry some? You're Richard Castle." Kate joked.

"Well, before I met you I did. But you were on the pill and Julia and I..we..um..we never did..that."

Even though they hadn't been together for the past year, she hasn't slept with anyone else. And by the comment that he just made, she was assuming that he hadn't slept with anyone else either. She tried to hold back a smile, but she just couldn't.

"Kate, what's going on?"

"Well, I didn't have time to refill my birth control prescription before we left, and if we had hypothetical sex, and no protection was used then I migh.."

"Pregnant. You might be pregnant?"

"Possibly." Kate mumbled.

Rick was staring at her for what felt like a century. Neither of them said anything, they just looked at one another.

"So, you didn't have time to fill your prescription? Rick asked, breaking the silence.

"True."

"And we got married?"

"True"

"And we had hypothetical sex?"

"Also, true."

"And now, you may be carrying my child?"

"Once more, true."

"And we are not excited about this because?" Rick asked.

Excited? Did he just say excited? Kate thought to herself. Probably because we got married less than 48 hours ago, had hypothetical sex and now I might be pregnant. Thats probably why I'm not jumping with joy. Three days ago we had no contact at all, and now all of this. All in one weekend. Was he excited?

"I'm not positive that I am pregnant." Kate trailed on, "But hypothetically, if I was, you would be excited?"

"Kate," Rick said, standing up from the table and pulling her into a hug, "I would be more than excited, hypothetical baby or not, I'm in this for the long run."

Kate felt like a weight was lifted off her shoulders. Even if she was pregnant, she now knew that Rick wouldn't freak out and run. Their relationship was real this time and even though they started off in a different position then planned, she already felt like they had a stronger bond now than they did before.

"Me too, Rick." She said, hugging him tighter. "Me too."

* * *

After they finished breakfast, they got ready for their day of traveling. They were heading back to New York today, even though both of them wanted to stay in Vegas longer. But Kate had to get back to work and Rick had another deadline to meet. They finished packing their suitcases and called a taxi.

The hotel lobby was full of drunk college kids who were yelling, dancing and spilling drinks on the carpet. "Those were the days." Rick said, smiling as they walked outside to the taxi.

"Apparently, those still are our days." Kate said, flashing her ring at Rick. They both laughed and climbed into the taxi. They arrived at the crowded airport. Business men in suits sped by them, yelling into their phones. More college kids talking about how great this spring break was going to be. While walking to their terminal, they got stuck behind a group of senior citizens who flew into Vegas to gamble. In the back of the group was an old man, carrying his wife's pink suitcase as she walked with a walker. Rick could tell that Kate was staring at them, she had a smile plastered across her face.

"One day, love." He said, kissing the top of her head.

* * *

Their flight was delayed and they ended up going to a restaurant that was located close to their boarding gate. Their conversation at lunch was light. Talking about work, Alexis and Martha, Jim Beckett and their friends at the precinct. Their plane started to board so Rick paid the bill and grabbed Kate's hand, almost pulling her to the plane.

"Oh, by the way, I upgraded your ticket." Rick said, handing Kate her boarding pass.

"Rick, you didn't have to do that."

"Yes, yes I did. I didn't want to sit all by myself for this long flight, and I couldn't bear the thought of you sitting in coach the whole time. Think of it as a 'Happy Three Day Anniversary' present."

"Well thank you," She said, reaching up to kiss him. "but don't be that guy who makes every day an anniversary."

They took their seats in first class. Kate had to admit, this was much better than sitting in coach. Within no time, Rick was asleep, falling over onto Kate who eventually fell asleep too. They both woke up by the jolt of the plane touching down in New York. They disembarked the plane and made their way to the baggage claim. They walked in silence, but still held hands. They both didn't realize how tired they were. Castle had called a car to pick them up, they walked outside and were greeted by the driver. Once inside the car, Kate leaned against the window, wishing she was in bed.

"Are you coming over tonight?" Rick asked her.

"Yeah, is it okay if we stop at my apartment first though? I need some cloths for work tomorrow."

"Of course."

On their way back to Kate's apartment, Rick noticed a black foreign car that was always behind them. He had seen the car when he was putting his bags in the trunk, and now on the highway, he saw the car again; following at a convenient distance. The car was far enough away that he couldn't see the license plate numbers, but close enough that he could tell the license plate was from Canada. The car also exited at the same exit they did, Rick thought nothing of it. New York was a busy city, people got of at that exit all the time.

Rick followed Kate up to her apartment and watched her throw her cloths from her suitcase into her hamper then pack clean ones in it. His mind started to wonder and he thought about asking her to move in with him, since they were married now. But he opted against it. There would be plenty of time for that in the future.

After Kate finished packing her bag, they left her apartment and got back into the car. Their day felt never ending, and it was only 7p.m. When they got back to Rick's loft, Martha and Alexis were sitting at the kitchen island eating dinner. 'Great,' Rick thought to himself, all he felt like doing was crawling back into bed, sleeping the weekend away.

"Darling! Welcome home! And Kate, it's lovely to see you again!" Martha said, walking past Rick and hugging Kate first.

"It's good to see you too, Martha." Kate agreed.

Rick and Kate told Alexis and Martha about their trip and how much fun everyone had, leaving out the whole marriage and possible pregnancy part.

"So Kate, what brings you back around? You two get married while you were there?" Martha asked, breaking out in laughter with Alexis.

**Reviews are greatly appreciated :)**


	11. Chapter 11

**Thank you guys for your comments and for putting my story on alert, it seriously makes my day when I check my email and it's full of stuff from you guys.**

**If I owned these characters, I probably wouldn't have so much student loan debt… **

Married. Alexis and Martha were laughing about the fact that Kate and Rick could have possibly got married. Both of their jaws hit the floor the second Martha said married. Now they all stared at each other. Rick knew that Kate wasn't ready to tell anyone about their weekend just yet, and he didn't want to force her.

"Of course not!" Rick said, breaking the awkward silence.

"What?" Alexis asked.

"Right Kate…" Rick stammered. "Not married, right?"

Kate didn't answer. She didn't know what to do. Should they just tell Alexis and Martha that they were married? Or should they wait and tell everyone together. Was Alexis going to be mad that she wasn't able to go to their wedding? Was Martha going to be upset? Probably not, she had been to his first two weddings. Her father. All that Kate could now think about was what Jim Beckett would say once he found out his little girl got married, in Vegas, while she was black out drunk.

Her dad always talked about how he was going to walk her down this isle at her wedding. Now what was he going to do? She was now feeling guilty. Jim only had one daughter, that was his only chance to walk someone down this isle, and she blew it.

"Hello? Earth to Kate." Alexis chimed in, breaking Kate from her thoughts.

"What?" Kate answered.

"I was just telling my mother and Alexis how we did not get married over the weekend." Rick replied.

"Of course we didn't." Kate answered. "But I'm feeling kind of tired from the flight, I'm going to go lay down. Dinner later?"

"Sure." Alexis answered. "But Gram is going out tonight, so it will just be the three of us."

"Wonderful." Rick replied.

"I'm so glad you're home, and I'm glad to see you here too, Kate." Alexis said, kissing her father and then Kate on the cheek, then running back up the stairs to her room.

"What's going on here?" Martha asked.

"Nothing, Mother. Why would yo think something is wrong?" Rick answered, trying to hide the excitement in his voice.

"Well, one, we haven't seen Kate in nearly a year. Two, when you left Friday, you had a girlfriend, Julie, Janet, Julia, whatever her name is. Three, I'm now wondering if Kate is cheating on her husband." Martha said.

"Wait, cheating? Husband?" Kate said, clearly confused.

"I'm assuming that you've gotten married in the past year, darling."

"Why would you think that I was married?"

"You're wearing a ring." Martha answered.

Kate absentmindedly ran her thumb over the back of the ring. She had completely forgotten she was wearing it. Martha was staring at Kate, waiting for an answer. Out of the corner of her eye, Kate saw rick slide the ring off of his finger and slip it into his pocket. At least she wasn't the only dumb one who wore a wedding ring back to New York.

Kate glanced at Rick, he looked just as shocked as she was. Martha always had a way of picking things up, even little things. Rick gave Kate a small nod, saying it was okay to tell Martha, if she wanted to.

"Well, I did get married." Kate said softly. "But I defiantly am not cheating on my husband."

"Care to explain?" Martha asked.

"It's a long story, Mother." Rick said before Kate could get out anything else.

Rick and Kate watched Martha pull out her phone and send a quick text.

"Well thats very convenient" Martha said. "It seems like my night has just opened up. I'll go grab a bottle of wine and some glasses and you can tell me all about it."

Martha walked into the kitchen and pulled down three wine glasses. Rick nudged Kate's arm, "None for me." She said. "Me either" Rick said also. This was going to be harder than she thought.

"If you can't drink, then neither can I." Rick whispered into her ear, kissing her forehead before pulling away. "We were so close to getting away with this."

"I forgot the damn ring." Kate whispered back. "I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry about, I forgot mine too. And I guess it's for the best. One less person to tell."

Martha returned to the living room and found Rick and Kate sitting on the couch. She poured a glass of wine for herself. She leaned back into the arm chair, "Lets start from the beginning." She said to Rick an Kate.

"Well, I went to the airport with the girls on Friday. And once we landed in Vegas, we wasted no time, we were on the strip within an hour after checking into our hotel. Then we went to a few bars, had dinner, went to a casino, and thats when we ran into Rick, Espo and Ryan." Kate said, "Rick, care to take over?"

"Umm… after we ran into the girls, things start to get a little hazy."

"So what you're telling me, is that you got married after a full day of drinking?" Martha asked, the two of them just nodded. "Just making sure we're on the same page, carry on."

"Then the next morning I woke up an Rick was sleeping on the floor. At first I thought it was Lanie, but then I got a text from her saying she went back to Javier's room. And now here we are." Kate explained.

"So, what are you going to do? Get another divorce?" Martha asked, staring at Rick when she said 'divorce'. "Stay married? Have adorable children? I could use a few more grandchildren to spoil, you know. And I'm sure that Jim wouldn't mind either."

"As of now, we're going to stay married." Kate said, smiling as Rick reached out and held her hand.

"Well, it's about time!" Martha said, standing up to hug them both.

Rick and Kate both let out a sigh of relief. If Martha was so happy about them being married, why wouldn't the rest of their friends and family be happy too. Martha took her wine glass into the kitchen then walked up the stairs, not saying another word, just smiling at them.

* * *

Rick was laying in bed, waiting for Kate to finish brushing her teeth. When she came out of the bathroom, she noticed that he had a blank look on his face. She crawled over him and laid in her usual spot, pressed up against his chest with her face in between his neck and shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her back and pulled her closer.

She missed sleeping like this. Ever since they broke up, she hadn't gotten one decent night of sleep. She spent most of the night tossing and turning. He bed was too big, too cold, she needed two people to sleep in it to feel comfortable. But now she wouldn't have to worry about sleeping alone. She was now committed to this man, Richard Castle, for the rest of her life. He was her favorite author, her partner, her best friend and now her husband. Her life was finally starting to fall into place.

"You're thinking too loud," Kate mumbled into Rick's neck. "What's up?"

"Alexis." Rick said. "I should have told her that we got married while we ate dinner, she can handle it. I feel like she should know. My mother knows, and we both know how well she can keep a secret, I don't want her to find out from someone else."

"Want to tell her now?"

"Kind of."

"Well it is only 11:15, so she's probably still awake."

Rick sat up and thought about telling his daughter that he was married, again. He stood up out of bed and pulled Kate with him. They walked through his office and up the stairs to Alexis' room.

"Sweetheart? Can we talk to you?" Rick said, knocking on the door then pushing it open.

"Yeah, dad. What's up?" Alexis said, looking confused. She closed her biology book and turned to face her father and Kate.

"We have to tell you something." Kate said.

"Shoot." Alexis said. Rick pulled Kate's hand and pulled her down next to him, sitting on Alexis' bed.

"Well," Rick started, "While we were in Vegas, we got marr.."

"Married. Yeah, I know." Alexis cut him off.

"What? How do you know?" Kate asked.

"I noticed you both were wearing wedding rings when you walked in. And you were in Vegas for the weekend, that turned into an extended weekend. And I saw Lanie this morning and she asked me about a million questions."

"What questions?" Kate requested.

"When you two were coming back, if I had talked to you recently, if you told me anything 'big'." I just kind of assumed." Alexis said, opening her book again.

"You're smarter than you look," Rick said, standing up, dragging Kate along with him. "And thats saying something because you look pretty smart."

"Thanks dad, but if you don't mind, I have a biology exam in two days and I really need to study."

Rick and Kate both said their goodnights to Alexis and made it back into the hallway.

"Dad?" They heard Alexis call. He peaked his head back in the door. "I'm really happy for you guys, I've been waiting for five years for this to happen." Rick smiled and closed the door once more.

* * *

When Ricked walked downstairs, he saw Kate walking through the office to bed. Rick went to the sink and got a glass of water, looking out the window as he did so. Thats strange, he thought. There was a running car with the lights on sitting outside the loft. There usually wasn't ever people outside at this time on a Monday night. He finished his glass of water and returned to bed for the second time that night.

Rick turned off the lights and crawled into bed next to Kate, she was taking the day off tomorrow, so they would have a whole day together. Alexis would be going back to college in the morning and his mother had acting classes all day.

Rick pulled Kate closer, rubbing his hands up and down her back. He could tell that she was exhausted, so he wouldn't try to seduce her with his rugged handsomeness.

"Love you," Kate mumbled just before she fell asleep.

"I love you too, Kate. Always."

**Reviews are greatly appreciated :) **


	12. Chapter 12

**Thank you all for keeping up with this story!**

**I really don't own these characters. I know, it's depressing. **

When Kate woke up the next morning, she found Rick staring at her. Even though it was a weird habit that he had, she had grown to love it. She now found it kind of cute that he liked to watch her sleep.

"Don't get up yet, go back to sleep." She whispered, rolling over as he pulled her closer.

Instead of going back to sleep, like Kate said, Rick made a trail of kisses along he back of her neck, onto her shoulders. Then rolled her over, his lips meeting hers. Kate felt as if they had never broken up. Sleeping in his bed, cuddling, waking up with him staring at her, morning kisses, it all felt natural. Like they had been doing it every day for the past twenty years. But this morning felt somewhat different, they were married. They were married and Martha and Alexis knew about it, and they were happy.

After pulling his lips away from hers, just long enough to take a few short breaths, Rick leaned back in and kiss her passionately.

"Good morning." Rick said, pressing his forehead against hers.

"Good morning to you too." Kate replied.

"Kate?"

"Yes?"

"Are you going to move in?"

She hadn't put much thought into moving in with him. When they were dating, she still had her apartment, but she hardly stayed there. Now since they were married, she just assumed that she would be living with him, in the loft they both referred to as 'home.'

"Do you want me to move in?"

"Kate, can you really not answer that question?" Rick asked. Running his fingers through her hair.

"I can answer it, I just want you to ask." Kate said with a smile.

"Fine. Kate Beckett, will you move in with me?"

"No."

"No? What?"

"I'm kidding, of course I'll move in with you."

Were they really ready for this, Kate thought to herself, second guessing her decision. They had fought for most of the last month of their relationship, and now, they were married. Should they wait a few months to move in together? Would it be better if she kept her apartment? Just in case?

"You're thinking too loud." Rick said, interrupting her train of thought. "And yes, we are ready to move in together. But I'll completely understand if you want to still keep your apartment."

"What are you, a mind reader?" Kate joked.

"No, I just know you." Rick said, pulling the comforter over their heads and kissing her again.

"What time is it?" She asked while pulling the comforter off of her head.

"Almost 11."

"11? You let me sleep for that long?"

"You looked so peaceful, I didn't want to wake you."

"What about Alexis? Did she leave yet?"

"Yes, she left at about 9. She wanted me to tell you goodbye and that she loves you."

Kate had kept in touch with Alexis over that last year. After her and Rick first broke up, Alexis was hesitant to see or talk to Kate, which Kate understood. Eventually, Alexis got over it and started having lunch or dinner with Kate at the precinct. Alexis still worked with Lanie when she wasn't in class.

Alexis confided in Kate when she had any type of problem. They talked about school, Alexis' current crush and many other things. Kate knew that Alexis saw her as more of a mom than a friend. In the past two years, Meredith had only flown into New York three times, two of which were used for business and she only got to see Alexis for a few hours. But Kate was always there for her. Kate always knew what was wrong with Alexis. Kate was the closest thing that Alexis had to a mother, and Alexis was the closest thing that Kate had to a daughter.

"She also wanted me to ask you if you wanted to meet for lunch at your usual spot." Rick said. "You have a usual spot?"

"Yeah. Alexis and I have lunch together at least three times a week."

"What? Why didn't I know about this?"

"She didn't want to tell you, she thought it might hurt your feelings that she was hanging out with your ex-girlfriend."

"Oh." Rick sighed.

"Would it have bothered you? Just out of curiosity."

"No, of course not. Alexis respects you, I respect you. You always know the right thing to do, if any of that has rubbed off on Alexis, I should consider myself lucky."

Kate leaned in and kissed him and rolled on top of him.

"I'm going to take a shower." She said, breaking apart from their kiss and climbing off of the bed.

"But Kate.." He moaned.

"Shower now," She said walking into the bathroom, "You coming, Castle?"

"Yes." Rick said without any hesitation.

Rick helped Kate out of her pajamas which consisted of his t-shirt and a pair of his boxers, he was wearing the same thing. Kate lifted Rick's shirt and threw it on the floor, adding to the pile of cloths. He stuck his hand in the shower and turned it on. Steam quickly filled the room. Kate pulled Rick into her, kissing him softly.

Rick kissed her back with passion and eagerness, moving his kisses from her lips, to her jaw, to her neck and down her arms. They stepped in the shower and couldn't restrain themselves anymore. He pushed her against the cold shower wall, moved her leg around him.

"Kate" He whispered, hesitating for a minute. "You haven't gone to the pharmacy to pick up your birth control."

"It's fine." She whispered back.

"But what if yo-"

"Shut up." She said, cutting him off.

"Okay, that works for me." He said, making them both laugh.

* * *

After their shower, Kate got dressed and went to the kitchen to make something for lunch. As she looked out the window, she saw a car sitting in the street. It looked like the driver was looking at her with binoculars. Kate brushed it off, and went back to making lunch. By the time she was finished cooking their grilled cheese sandwiches, the car was gone. Rick walked out of the bedroom and they ate their lunch in comfortable silence, causing Kate to completely forget about the car that was sitting outside of the loft.

"We should have a party." Rick said.

"For what? A congratulations for getting married while drunk in Vegas party?"

"Yeah. Maybe we shouldn't give it that title but type of idea."

"Sounds good."

"Maybe we can have it in the Hamptons. Once it gets a little warmer."

"Who do you plan on inviting to this party?"

"My mother, Alexis, your father, the boys, Lanie, maybe a few other people. Keep it small."

"Sounds fun to me." Kate said smiling. She liked the idea of telling her friends that her and Rick were choosing to stay married all at one time.

Kate picked up their dirt dishes and walked to the sink, turning on the water. She washed their plates and cups, noticing how natural it felt to be standing in Richard Castle's kitchen, making lunch and doing the dishes.

Kate heard her phone go off in the bedroom so she turned off the water, dried her hands and went to go get it. When she picked it up, she had a text from Lanie.

'_We need to talk as soon as you get this, are you two staying married or what? It's killing me not knowing, girl!' _

Looks like she wouldn't be telling all of her friends at one time. She definitely couldn't keep this secret from Lanie. Lanie cut up dead people for a living, Kate really didn't want to get on her bad side. She texted Lanie back.

'_I'll be in tomorrow, I'll come down then?' _

She got an almost instantaneous reply,

'_You're really going to make me wait another day! This story better be good.'_

**Reviews are greatly appreciated :)**


	13. Chapter 13

**Thank you guys for all your awesome reviews. I am truly blown away by the positive feedback I've got from this story. **

**I didn't own these characters yesterday, and unfortunately, I don't own them today. **

As Kate Beckett walked into the elevator at the precinct, her mind wondered to the events that had taken place over the past two weeks. She had a great time with her friends in Vegas, her father wasn't turning to the bottle, she married Richard Castle, and might be pregnant.

Whenever Kate had a spare second of free time at work, her mind always drifted to the memories that would be made with a baby running around the loft. Sure, the timing wasn't ideal but it was a baby. A perfect mixture of her and Rick. How could that not be wonderful? After the joyous thoughts of carseats, diapers and little shoes flashed through her head, her mind was logical. She couldn't get too emotionally attached to the thought of a possible baby when she wasn't even sure she was pregnant yet. What would she do if she wasn't? What would Rick say?

As she entered the morgue, Lanie was sitting in a cold, hard, steel autopsy table. Kate went and sat across from her on another table.

"Tell me." Lanie said as soon as Kate sat down.

"Tell you what?" Kate asked, even though she knew exactly what Lanie wanted to know. It was the same thing that everybody in the precinct wanted to know.

"Don't play dumb with me girl, I need to know if you and Castle are going to make this work!"

"What would you do if I said no..?" Kate said. "We tried to talk it out but I want, I need, to be here at the precinct. I want to find my moms murderer. We talked it over in Vegas and decided we would just get an annulment."

"YOU WHAT?" Lanie exclaimed.

"I just guess it's for the best." Kate said, trying to hold in a smile. Lanie's jaw nearly dropped when she knew Kate was lying.

"I knew it, I knew you two would stay married. And don't test me, I know how to make your cause of death look like natural causes." Lanie joked. "So, how is it?"

"It's.. It's great."

"Thats it? Just great?"

"No, not just great. It's extraordinary. He is my 'one and done,' Lanie. He always was, and now he always will be." Kate blushed, realizing that the words coming out of her mouth were not typical bad-ass-Kate-Beckett language.

"Have you told the boys yet?"

"No, you are the only person who knows. Well, Martha and Alexis kind of figured it out last night, so nobody else knows besides you three. And we would like to keep it that way."

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. And how did they 'figure' it out?"

"Thanks, Lanie. They were both pretty surprised to see me there, I haven't been to the loft in over a year, so that was a start, and the fact that we were both wearing wedding rings. They're both pretty smart women."

"Ring? You have an actual ring? Not just a cheap we-got-married-in-Vegas-while-really-drunk ring?"

"Yeah, it's kind of a long story."

"Well, thats convenient. I just so happen to be taking an extra long lunch today." Lanie said, smiling at Kate.

Kate went on to tell Lanie how Rick had picked out the ring while they were still dating. And how he left it in his suitcase that he just so happened to bring to Vegas with him. Lanie couldn't stop smiling as her friend went on and on about how great Rick was and how much she missed him.

"How do you feel about your relationship this time?" Lanie asked.

"Beyond great. I feel that were closer now that we've spent so much time apart. It's given us both a chance to grow. And Rick is now much more accepting of my job and the risks that come along with it."

"I'm truly happy for you, girl." Lanie said with a huge smile on her face. "The next betting pool is 'when are they going to have little Castle babies', so, what month should I put my money in for?"

Kate's jaw dropped. "What?" She asked, the one syllable word was harder to say now than anytime before.

"When are you going to have babies? Are you going to have babies?" Lanie questioned.

"Well..um..you might want to put some money in for December."

"Wait..December, thats nine months away." Lanie said, recounting the months in her head. "Katherine Beckett, what are you not telling me!"

"Well.."

"YOU'RE PREGNANT!"

"I wish I could give you an answer, but I'm not sure yet."

"Did you go see your doctor?"

"No."

"Did you take a home pregnancy test?"

"No."

"So what did you do then?"

"Nothing yet." Except for day dream about how great it would be to be carrying Richard Castle's child, she thought to herself. "Except possible unprotected sex."

"But you're on the pill." Lanie said in a confused tone.

"I am, but I was supposed to go to the pharmacy to pick up my prescription the day that we left for Vegas, and I never got around to it. Then I got married to Rick, and I have no clue what happened."

Lanie jumped up off the table and started running around the exam room. Grabbing things that made no sense to Kate.

"Lanie, what are you doing?" Kate asked while her friend ran frantic around the room.

"Finally winning some money in the pool." Lanie said, so quiet that Kate could hardly hear it. When she was done gathering her items, she walked backed to Kate and put on rubber gloves. "Roll up your sleeve."

"Why? What are you doing."

"Finding out if you're pregnant or not. Roll it up."

Kate pushed up her sleeve and watched as Lanie tied a rubber strip above her elbow. Lanie drew the blood and put a bandaid on Kate's arm.

"I'll know by tonight, tomorrow if a case comes in." Lanie said, throwing away the needle.

"Lanie, wait." Kate said. "Shouldn't Rick be here too? So we can find out together?"

"Bring him with you. I'll text you when the results come in. But, unless you want to watch me cut open this guy, I suggest you leave." Lanie said.

"Alright, I'll see you later." Kate said, walking out the door and back into the elevator.

As she stepped into the elevator her phone rang, she didn't recognize the number.

"Beckett." She said, stepping out of the elevator and into the bullpen.

"Detective, it's so nice to hear from you again." The voice said into the phone.

"Who is this?" She asked, even though she didn't need to. That was the voice of a man who almost killed her. She would never forget it. She motioned for Ryan to trace the call, mouthing 'Cole Maddox' to him. He immediately started furiously typing on his computer and gave her a thumbs up.

"I believe you know who it is, I was just calling see how you were doing? I noticed there wasn't any blood stains on the pavement, so I knew you somehow found a way to climb back up."

"Yeah, I did. Thanks for that by the way. I really like to start my day with hanging from buildings and near death situations."

"Get used to it detective." The voice said, ending the call.

"Did you get it?" Kate asked Ryan.

"Yeah, call came from a pay phone in Central Park." Ryan responded. "I'll get security videos and Espo and I will go over there."

"Thanks, Ryan." Kate said, sitting down into her chair.

She looked over at Rick's chair. It was empty, and she really wished he was here. He always knew what to say and how to make her feel better. But she had been the one who forced him to stay home today to catch up on writing.

"Beckett" Gates said, walking out of her office.

"Yes, sir?" Kate asked.

"I just heard that Ryan and Esposito are following a possible lead for Maddox, is that true?"

"Yes."

"That is what I thought. Go home, Beckett. This man has hurt you enough. I'll call you if anything changes." Gates said, walking back into her office. She turned around and saw Kate still sitting at her desk. "Effective immediately." She said, slamming the door behind her.

* * *

When Kate walked into the loft, she expected Rick to be writing. Instead, he was sleeping on the couch while a movie played in the background. She walked over and laid on the couch next to him, cuddling into his chest. Her movement woke him and he leaned down to kiss her forehead.

"What are you doing back so soon?" Rick asked, still half asleep.

"Gates sent me home."

"Good, now you get to help me procrastinate." Rick said, sliding his hands up her back and sliding off her sweater. His fingers hit the bandaid lanie had put on. "What happened?"

"Lanie drew blood." She said, kissing his neck.

"For what?"

"Pregnancy test."

"Oh. And?"

"She said she would know by tomorrow at the latest. So I guess we just wait."

"I have something in mind that we can do to pass the ti-" Rick was cut off by the sound of Kate's phone ringing. It was her dad.

"Hi, dad." Kate said into the phone.

"Hi, Katie. How are you?"

"Pretty good, how are you?"

"Good. How was your trip?"

"It was great, dad. Really great."

"Have you seen the papers today?" Jim asked her.

"No? Why?"

"You and your new husband made page three."

**Reviews are greatly appreciated :)**


	14. Chapter 14

**Thank you to everyone who has read this story from the beginning. **

**I keep my chapters short on purpose, I like to keep you coming back for more. **

**A/N: Sorry for any grammatical / spelling errors, these ideas just pop in my head and I tend to type them out fast so I don't forget anything, sorry :)**

Before Kate could ask Rick to get the paper, he was already running across the room to his office. He grabbed the paper and ran back out to the kitchen, where Kate was now standing. He flipped the pages and found a picture of himself and Kate, walking through the airport, both wearing wedding rings. The title of the article was _'Third Times a Charm? New York Author, Richard Castle, Marries His Muse.'_

Kate was still on the phone with her dad, trying to explain the events of the past two weeks. How she had gone to Vegas for Lanie and Javier's wedding, ended up drinking a little too much, and marrying Rick. She left out the pregnancy part, she didn't want to give the man a heart attack. Kate was really surprised on how well her father was taking this new information. Like everyone else, he had asked why they hadn't got married earlier?

"This is bad." Rick whispered to Kate, as he finished reading the article.

"Okay, love you too, dad. Bye." Kate hung up the phone and dropped her head into her hands. Rick instantaneously stood up and went to hug her.

"What did he say?" he asked as he felt her arms looping around his back.

"He's upset, he's angry, he's wondering why we didn't do this two years ago and he's really happy for us." Kate said, burying her head into his shoulder.

"Hey, thats a good thing."

"I know, I just..he only has me. And he's been talking about walking me down the isle since before my mom died. I just feel like I let him down."

"You didn't let him down, Kate. He said he was happy for us, just accept the fact that everyone we've told so far has been happy for us."

"We did the right thing."

"Yeah, we really did." He said, pulling her closer.

* * *

They both went to bed early that night. Kate was surprisingly exhausted, she had only worked half of the day and she came home and watched movies with Rick. Rick on the other hand, was wide awake. He just didn't want to write. He would have done anything to get out of writing for the night, including calling it an early night and crawling into bed a nine.

Rick and Kate fell asleep quickly, only to be awaken by Rick's phone a half hour later.

"Hello?" Rick said into the phone.

"RICHARD CASTLE, DO YOU THINK YOU CAN GET MARRIED AND NOT TELL ME ABOUT IT?" Paula yelled into the phone.

"My night is going wonderfully, thank you for asking." Rick said, slowly trying to get out of the bed without waking Kate. He finally got up and walked into his office, closing the door behind him.

"You're in the paper Rick!"

"Yeah, I know. I'm in the paper a lot these days. I _am_ a ruggedly handsome writer."

"Cut the crap, Rick. Who is it this time?"

"This time?"

"Who are you 'married' to now?" Paula asked. Rick could almost hear her using air quotations over the phone.

"Kate."

"Kate as in Nikki Heat, Kate?"

"Do I know another Kate?"

"I don't know Rick, I obviously don't know much about you these days." Paula said. "What are you going to do about it?"

"What am I going to do about it?"

"Yeah, another divorce is not going to look good."

"Good, because we are staying together."

Rick explained what happened in Vegas to Paula. She had even admitted that she knew they were going to get back together eventually. The two exchanged friendly chit chat and Rick eventually said his goodbyes and went back into the bedroom. He curled up next to Kate and fell asleep almost instantly.

* * *

When Kate woke up, Rick wasn't staring at her. He wasn't even in the room. She got up and walked into his office. He was sitting at his desk, typing away. She walked over and kissed him.

"Good morning." He said, with a huge smile across his face.

"Good morning to you too." She said, kissing him again.

"What do you want to do today?"

"Nothing. I really just want to cuddle up on the couch and watch some movies. If that is okay with you?"

"That's more than okay, that sounds perfect."

Rick closed his computer and grabbed Kate's hand, pulling her out into the living room. He pulled the blanket off of the back of the couch and dragged her down onto the couch with him. She was laying on top of him with her head resting on his chest.

They went through the list of Netflix movies and chose to watch _The Bourne Identity. _Halfway through the movie, Kate got a call from Gates.

"Beckett" Kate answered.

"Beckett, CSU did a full sweep of the phone booth Maddox used. They found a piece of scrap paper with an address written down on it. When they swept it for prints, they found Maddox's. I want you to stay home for the next week or so until we can get this all figured out."

"But Sir.."

"Beckett, don't argue with me. I can afford to lose you. Take this a chance to get out of the city, go on a vacation for the next few days."

"Fine. Thank you for calling Gates."

"Listen Beckett, I don't want to see you or your shadow in here until this is all sorted out, understand?"

"Yes. Goodbye sir."

"Goodbye, Beckett."

As they clicked off the phone, Kate could feel Rick staring at her. She was still laying on top of him and he had paused the movie so she wouldn't have to get off the couch to talk. She set her phone on the table and leaned back into his chest.

"What did Gates say?" He asked her.

"That I can't come back until everything is sorted out."

"Sorted out? What?"

"I didn't want to tell you until I was 100% sure but Maddox called yesterday. Ryan traced the call to a pay phone in the park and now Gates wont let me come back to work until the situation is dealt with."

"What? He called you? And you didn't tell me?" Rick said.

"I just wanted to make sure nothing was going to happen. I wanted to be positive it was Maddox before we jumped to any conclusions."

"And the team is sure now?"

"Yes, they found a paper by the phone he used, it had his prints all over it." Kate said. "But if you look on the bright side, we can do something fun this week. Since I don't have to go anywhere or wake up early."

"Want to get out of town?" Rick said.

"More than anything." Kate replied while kissing him.

"Want to go take a bath?"

"Sure."

Rick followed Kate into the bathroom where they drew a bath and stepped in together, both of them were oblivious to the car that was sitting out side of the loft again.

**Reviews are greatly appreciated :)**


	15. Chapter 15

**Over 100 reviews? I'm seriously baffled, thank you guys so much for making my first story such a success. **

**It's unfortunate, but I don't own these characters. **

When Rick and Kate woke up the next morning, they packed their bags and got ready to go to the Hamptons. After breakfast, Kate locked her gun and badge in the safe in Rick's office then they put their bags in the Ferrari, put the top down and headed towards the highway. They sat in silence for most of the ride, both of their minds running at a million miles per minute. Thoughts of Maddox, family and a possible pregnancy flooded their minds.

Sitting in the passenger seat, Kate's mind drifted to Cole Maddox. He was in the city and she had no clue what his next move was. She had gotten a call from Ryan and Esposito when they were packing their bags this morning. Ryan pulled security videos from the park and followed Maddox back to his car. Esposito put out an APB for the car and shortly after Rick and Kate left, the car was found. Ryan and Esposito were now going to pick up the car. She was afraid. Afraid of what Maddox was capable of. Afraid of what he could do to her and her family.

Rick on the other hand, was not thinking about Cole Maddox. He was thinking of the possibility that he could have another child in less than nine months. A baby. A mix of Kate and himself. Was he really ready to be a father again? It had been over nineteen years since he had to wake up for feedings at three in the morning, changed diapers and buckled a car seat. 'I'll have to get a new car, a car seat will never fit in this Ferrari,' he thought to himself. Maybe a mini-van. So everyone could fit. They could take road trips, drive to soccer practices and go to Columbia to see Alexis. And if they had a mini-van, they could have more kids.

"You're thinking too loud." Kate said, breaking his train of thought.

"Could you see us in a mini-van?" Rick asked.

"What?"

"What?" Rick said, wishing he hadn't of asked her that.

"A mini-van. You want us to drive a mini-van?"

"No?"

"Good choice. Whats wrong with the Ferrari?" Kate asked, even though she already knew where he was going with this conversation.

"Nothings wrong with it, but where would we put a car seat?"

Yup, this is exactly where she was expecting this to be going. "Do I look like the kind of person that drives a mini-van, Rick?"

"No, but.."

"One, you're getting ahead of yourself, we don't even know if I'm pregnant yet. Two, how about a cool SUV?"

Rick smiled, "We could fill it with cool FBI gadgets and take our kids to crime scenes. Well when their old enough and there is no crazy person running around shooting at everyone."

"We'll talk about this later." Kate said as she leaned in to turn up the radio.

Now she was thinking about babies. The sounds of little feet running across the hard wood floors in the loft, playing peak-a-boo, little giggles, first words. She tried to force the thoughts out of her head, she didn't want to get too excited about something she didn't even know was true. But she couldn't do it, she wanted a baby. Now more than ever. Her mind drifted to when the topic of having kids was first brought up.

_Kate's friend Lauren and her husband Doug had asked her to babysit her 18 month old son, Max. Lauren dropped Max off at the loft around eight._

"_Are you sure you're okay with this?" Lauren asked Kate. Lauren was still on edge about leaving Max with anyone. He was her first baby and she was extremely over protective. _

"_Yes, Lauren. We'll be fine." _

"_Okay, call me if you need anything, and I mean anything. Heres my cell phone number and Doug's cell number. And here is the number for the restaurant, just in case. And our pediatrician's card is in the diaper bag, his home number is on the back."_

"_Lauren, go. Go have a good time with your husband. It's been over a year since you two have been out." Kate said, almost pushing her friend out the door. After saying their goodbyes, Lauren left. Leaving Rick and Kate alone with a toddler. _

_They played with his blocks, and watched an array of colorful shows on TV until Max fell asleep. Max was sprawled out on the couch with his blanket and assortment of stuffed animals, leaving Rick and Kate to sit in the love seat. _

"_I think I want one." Kate whispered into Rick's chest._

"_Want one of what?"_

"_Baby."_

"_You want a baby, like right now?"_

"_Not right now, but eventually. Sooner than later."_

"_Really?"_

"_Yeah, do you not want more kids?"_

"_I thought you would never ask," Rick said, leaning down to kiss her head. "Of course I want more kids, especially with you." _

"_Good, because you're the only person I want to have kids with." _

* * *

Back in the city, Esposito and Ryan were on the hunt for Maddox's car. They pulled into a parking garage and went to the bottom level. They were now four floors underground. The garage was deserted, the only reason that the car was found was because there had been drug trafficking on the floor below them. Uniforms would sit on this floor and wait for drug dealers and buyers to drive by, but that day they found a car. It just so happened to be Maddox's car.

"This place is kinda creepy." Ryan said to Esposito as they stepped out of the police cruiser.

"What do you expect from an abandoned parking garage, bro?" Esposito said, pulling a flashlight from the trunk of his car.

"Maybe a light or two." Ryan joked.

"Stop!" Ryan said, "Do you hear that?"

"Yeah, but where is it coming from?" They both looked down at the trunk of Maddox's car. They were both hearing pounding and light cries for help.

Esposito tried to open the trunk but it was locked, "Is there a crowbar in the trunk?"

"I'll go check." Ryan said, running back to the cruiser.

Ryan handed Esposito the crow bar and watched him pry the trunk open. When they opened the trunk, they didn't find a body. They found a computer, playing a recording. They both stared at the screen, it flashed to a screen that said 'Good Luck Officers", then turned off.

"What the hell is going on?" Esposito asked.

"I have no idea, should we call for back-" Ryan was cut off. He felt an electric current going through his body. He was being tazed. Within seconds of Ryan falling to the ground, Esposito pulled his gun out of the holster and fired shots. Before he knew it, he was on the ground next to Ryan.

* * *

When they woke up, they were locked in a small room with a window too small to climb out of. It let in just enough light that they could see each other.

"Javi?" Ryan said, struggling to sit up.

"What happened?" Esposito asked.

"My back hurts," Ryan said reaching for his back.

"I think we were drugged. Is this a needle mark on my neck?"

"Yeah, I have one too."

"I don't have my gun, badge or phone."

"Neither do I."

"We should have called for backup, if this doesn't kill us, Gates sure as hell will." Esposito said. They had broken Gates' rule about always calling and telling someone where they were going. Today, they just wanted to get the car and hopefully leave work early.

"So much for leaving early." Ryan joked.

"Too bad, what time is it?"

"Seven. We were out for almost eight hours."

"Gates has to have someone looking for us now, shouldn't she?"

"With Beckett and Castle both gone, she'll have to notice."

"Do you think Maddox is behind this?" Esposito asked, "Do you think he is using us to get to Beckett?"

"I hate to say it, but yeah."

They both leaned against the wall and tried to get comfortable. They had no clue where they were and how long they would be locked in this room.

**Reviews are greatly appreciated :) **


	16. Chapter 16

**Thank you guys for following this story and all of your great reviews.**

**I don't really know how I feel about this chapter, I wasn't completely satisfied while writing it. I'll leave it up to you guys. **

**If I owned these characters, do you think I would need so many student loans?**

After stopping at a small diner for dinner, Rick pulled the car into the driveway of his beach house. Kate stepped out and watched Rick grab their bags. As they stepped inside, they were both hit with the memory of their breakup.

"Wow." Rick said as he closed the front door.

"Yeah." Kate said.

"I haven't been here since…"

"Really?" Kate asked. She was surprised that Rick hadn't returned to his beach house since they broke up.

"Yeah, I couldn't do it." Rick said, playing with a button on his shirt. "I thought about selling at one point."

"Why?" Was all she could get out.

"I couldn't come back here. I couldn't look at that door without thinking of you walking out of it. I came here once with hopes to write since I was so behind, but I didn't even stay for a whole day. I was just...i just couldn't do it."

Kate dropped her purse on the couch and went to hug him. "I'm sorry, Rick. I truly am. I never got a chance to apologize for all that happened with us. I'm so sorry that things ended the way they did, I blame myself everyday."

"Kate, don't. It's not your fault. I wanted you to quit your job, I should have never asked you to do that. Can we just both agree that we were both wrong?"

"I can't do that, Rick. You weren't wrong. You said I was going to get hurt, and I did. I pushed the most important person in my life away, and now that were back together, I can't help but feel that we wasted so much time."

"There was no wasted time, we both grew when we were apart. But now, were stronger, stronger as a couple and were married. It wasn't wasted time."

She didn't say anything back to him, she just hugged him tighter. They _were_ a better couple now. Rick pulled Kate over to the couch and put in a movie. Before the movie ended, they both fell asleep on the couch.

Kate was awaken by her phone vibrating in her back pocket. She uncovered herself from the blanket and reached for her phone, answering it without looking to see who it was.

"Hello?" She whispering, she was too tired to get up but she didn't want to wake Rick.

"Where the hell are you, girl?" Lanie exclaimed into the phone.

"Gates kicked me out, Rick and I came to the hamptons for a few days. Why?"

"Why are you whispering?"

"I was sleeping."

"It's 8:45, you're in bed already?"

"It's been a long week, Lanie. And stop yelling, Rick is sleeping."

"When are you coming back?"

"I don't know yet. Whenever this case with Maddox blows over. Have you talked to Esposito and Ryan today?"

"No, I actually haven't even seen them all day today."

"I'll call them tomorrow, I want to know where they are in this case." Kate said, "I would love to chat but I'm tired Lanie."

"Well, wake up. I have news."

"Lanie, did you..?"

"Yes."

"And?"

"Wouldn't you want to hear it in person?" Lanie asked.

"No, I want to know now."

"Are you sure?"

"Lanie."

"Yes."

"Yes?"

"Yes." Lanie said, trying to hold back screams. "Wake up writer boy."

Kate couldn't believe it. She had forced the thoughts of having a baby out of her head for days. But now she didn't have to.

"Thank you, Lanie."

"Anytime, girl. And don't tell the boys that I know, I'm winning this pool." Lanie joked.

"Call me tomorrow?"

"Of course, now go tell Castle."

"Bye, Lanie." They clicked off the phone.

Kate was overjoyed. She pulled the blanket back over her and put her head back onto Rick's chest. He started to stir and opened his eyes, only to find Kate staring at him.

"Want to go to bed?" He asked her.

"Yeah." She replied.

They went upstairs to the bedroom, more memories were brought back to Kate's mind. Even though she was more than excited about being pregnant, she couldn't get over the fact that the last time they were here together, they broke up. She watched Rick go into the bathroom and start to brush his teeth. She put on her pajamas and crawled into bed, he was soon to follow. After turning off the bedside lamp, Rick extended his arm, pulling Kate closer in the process.

"Goodnight, Kate." He whispered.

"Wait."

"What?"

"I have to tell you something."

"It can't wait until morning?" Rick said barley awake, his eyes already closed.

"No. Well, it can, but I don't want to."

"What is it, Kate?"

"Lanie called while you were asleep."

He shifted his body so they were now laying face to face. "And?"

She looked up at him and smiled, "Yes."

"Really?"

"Really."

He pulled her into a tighter hug, he let go of her just enough that he could kiss her. "I love you, Kate." He mumbled into her neck. "And I'm so unbelievably happy that we got super drunk in Vegas, got married and now you're pregnant."

She let out a sigh of relief. She could tell that he was truly happy. "I love you too, Rick. And for the record, I've never been happier."

They held each other until they both fell asleep. Hugging, kissing and talking about the future.

* * *

Back in the city, Gates had been tracking Esposito and Ryan all day. Both of their cell phones were off the grid and their cruiser was found in the parking garage where Maddox's car was supposed to be. When the uniforms arrived, they found Ryan's car, but not Maddox's.

Inside the cruiser, they found both Ryan and Esposito's guns, badges, and cell phones. Gates immediately knew that Maddox was behind this. He wanted to get to Kate and taking out two of her co-workers, two of her best friends, would have her running back to the precinct.

"I want his picture in every newspaper and on every news channel by morning." Gates yelled into her phone. "I don't care if he will run once he sees himself on TV, I want my detectives back!"

CSU swept the cruiser for any prints, nothing out of the ordinary. But that is what they expected, Cole Maddox was a trained killer. He knew better than to get sloppy and leave a print behind. All of the security camera in the garage were turned off, nobody was paying for electricity; even if they were on, they wouldn't be able to see anything since it was so dark. By the next morning, Maddox's picture was on every news channel and in every paper.

By three in the morning, a New Jersey State Police officer called Gates, saying that he had just pulled Maddox over for speeding. The cop didn't give him a ticket and let Maddox off with a warning. Within minutes, Gates was on the phone with Jordan Shaw. Gates knew she couldn't find Esposito and Ryan without Beckett around. She had to call in the cavalry.

* * *

Ryan and Esposito were still locked in a small room. They tried breaking the window, but it had bars over it. They tried to break the door down but it was solid steel. Even if they broke out, they wouldn't know where to go, they had no clue where they were, who their kidnapper was and when they would be getting out.

Ryan was checking his watch every ten minutes. It was now almost eleven. They had been gone from the precinct for over twelve hours, somebody had to be looking for them by now.

"What do you think is going to happen to us?"Ryan asked, trying to find a comfortable position on the concrete ground to sleep in.

"I don't know, Kevin." Espo answered. "I really don't."

"Do you think their looking for us yet?"

"They have to be. It's been almost twelve hours since we were at the precinct. Gates had to notice we were gone by now."

They both tried to sleep, tried to forget about their situation if only for a minute. When they woke up two hours later, they were not in the small room anymore. They were handcuffed to a metal pole by their police cuffs. They heard footsteps coming closer and closer. It was Maddox.

"Where is she?" Maddox asked, taking steps closer and closer to Ryan and Espo.

"Where is who?" Esposito answered back.

"Don't play dumb with me. I know you two know where she is."

"We don't know, the Captain kicked her out for a few days. I haven't talked to her since."

"Fine. Play this game your way." Maddox answered. He was now pulling on a chain. "We'll see how you like it."

The poles that Ryan and Esposito were connected to a pulley system. Every time Maddox pulled on the chain, it would lift the cuffs higher and higher until both men were hanging by their arms from the ceiling. Eventually causing the cuffs to cut into their wrists.

**Reviews are greatly appreciated :)**


	17. Chapter 17

**Thank you to everyone who has stuck with this story since the beginning, it makes me so happy. **

**I really don't own these characters, it makes me sad everyday. **

"Where the hell are they!" Gates yelled into the precinct while getting off the elevator. She stared out at the three detectives sitting in the bullpen.

"We've got nothing, Sir." Detective Roberts said.

"Jones, Robert, Cross, get back out there and find something!" Gates yelled.

"Gates, we've got something." Jordan Shaw said, walking through the bullpen with a stack of papers in her hands. "Maddox's car was dumped, again. Were going out now."

"I'm coming with you." Gates replied, grabbing her jacket off the coat hook.

Gates and Shaw walked towards the elevator and went down to the main floor. They climbed into Shaw's SUV and took off to the parking lot that Maddox's car was found in. A security guard from a local mall came across Maddox's car while he was getting ready to close. Gates and Shaw rode in silence. Neither of them wanted to bring up the fact that two of Gates' best detectives were missing, kidnapped by the man who tried to kill Beckett. As they pulled into the parking lot, they saw CSU already sweeping the car for prints. The security guard that found the car was now standing with two uniforms.

"Tell me what happened." Shaw said, walking towards the security guard.

"After locking all of the mall doors, I was making my last drive through in the parking lot and I saw the car parked in a 'no overnight parking' spot. So I called the tow truck to come get the car, and thats when I remembered hearing about a similar car on the news and in the paper. Then I called the cops and now here we are." The security guard explained.

"Did you see anyone around?" Gates asked.

"No, I noticed the car this morning but some people park their cars in this parking lot then carpool to work, so I didn't think anything of it."

"We're going to need all of the security footage from this parking lot. Starting at yesterday morning until this morning." Gates said, walking away from Shaw and the guard.

"I'll go inside and get them." The guard said, also walking away.

The guard went into the mall and pulled all of the security footage from the previous day. And gave them to Shaw. CSU was able to pull a partial print from Maddox's car and they were taking it back to the lab.

Gates and Shaw got back into the SUV and went back to the precinct. When they got there, Gates got out without saying a word and headed up to her office. She sat there and read the case file, over and over again.

* * *

Kate woke up the next morning and Rick wasn't in bed with her. She got up and wondered through the house. She found Rick sitting on the back porch with his laptop open. He was typing furiously and didn't notice her walk out.

"Hey," She said, sliding onto the porch swing with him. "Are you writing?"

"Hey," He answered, leaning in for a kiss. "Creativity stuck when I woke up."

"Whats happening in this chapter?"

"Don't freak out but Nikki is pregnant."

"What?"

"I've been planning on her getting pregnant since the first book, I just didn't have any motivation to do so. But now.."

"You're not saying anything.." Rick said after a minute of him watching Kate stare at him.

"I'm just surprised."

"Do you want me to take it out? Nikki doesn't have to be pregnant."

"No, don't take it out. I like it."

"Really?"

"Yeah, Nikki and Rook wouldn't happen to be getting married in Vegas, would they?" Kate joked, leaning her head on Rick's shoulder.

"No, thats just for us." He smiled down at her. "Breakfast?"

"Sure." They both stood up and went inside to make breakfast. Neither of them were that hungry, so they both grabbed a muffin and sat down at the dining room table.

"What are we doing today?" Kate asked.

"I was thinking about going out to dinner tonight, to celebrate." Rick said, taking a sip of his coffee.

"Sounds like a plan."

* * *

"We've got something, Gates." Detective Roberts said as he walked into Gates' office.

"What is it?" Gates responded instantly.

"The partial print that we found on Maddox's car, we ran it through the data base and it came up with a hit. Martin Jackson, he has priors. He's been charged with three breaking and entering, drug charges and carrying a weapon while on probation." Roberts explained. "His father is a powerful lawyer in New Jersey, thats why Martin has never been in jail."

"Where is he now?"

"We ran his financial history and his credit card was last used at a small convenience store outside of the Hamptons."

"Where does he live?"

"The address on his license is for a condo near the store his credit card was used at. Jones and Cross are going there now."

"Keep me updated."

"Yes, sir." Roberts said, walking out of Gates' office and closing the door behind him.

* * *

"I suggest you two tell me where Beckett." Maddox said, staring at Esposito and Ryan.

Espo and Ryan were still handcuffed to the pulley system, once Maddox started pulling the chain, they would both start hanging by their hands.

"Not talking?" Maddox said. "Maybe we should just call detective Beckett and tell her about our little situation, maybe your friend will come rescue you."

Maddox pulled his phone from his back pocket and scrolled through his contact list. "Last chance to just tell me where she is." He said, Ryan and Esposito were both silent. He dialed the number and put it on speaker phone.

"Beckett"

"Detective Beckett, it's nice to talk to you again."

"What do you want?"

"I'm just here talking to your friends and we were wondering where you were, care to tell us detective?"

"What friends? And there is no way in hell that I'm telling you where I'm at."

"I'm here with Detectives Ryan and Esposito."

"You're what?" Kate demanded. "Put them on, now."

Maddox walked closer to Esposito and put the phone by his face. "Say 'hello' to Detective Beckett."

"Hey Beckett." Esposito whispered into the phone.

"Javi, what is going on?"

"Oh nothing, just hanging out with Maddox. Would you mind calling Gates for us? Were a little tied up."

"Thats enough, Esposito. Now, Beckett, would you like to meet me somewhere and we can get this taken care of?"

"Get what taken care of?"

"You know what I want, Beckett."

Before Kate could respond, Maddox clicked off the phone.

* * *

"Who was that?" Rick asked Kate.

"Maddox." Kate responded. "He's got Esposito and Ryan. We have to go."

"I'll grab our bags." Rick said without arguing.

They both got in the car and started driving back to the city.

* * *

Squad cars pulled up to Martin Jackson's house and started banging on the door. When nobody answered, they kicked the door down. Nobody was home. Jones and Cross searched the house and found a room covered with pictures of Kate, Rick, Esposito, Ryan and Gates.

Maddox was stalking everyone who worked with Kate at the twelfth. Before Cross and Jones walked out of the room, they found a keychain hanging on a hook on the back of the door. There was only one key on the chain with a small piece of paper that had numbers jotted down on it. Cross put the keychain in an evidence bag and they left.

"We've got a key that looks like it's too a storage locker." Jones said while on the phone with Gates. "And it looks like Maddox has been here recently."

"I'll put undercover cops covering the area." Gates said. "We'll get him."

**Reviews are greatly appreciated. **


	18. Chapter 18

**You guys seriously make me so happy. I love reading your reviews. Thank you!**

**Really? Do you think I own them?**

"What have we got so far?" Kate yelled as she stepped out of the elevator into the bullpen.

"Um… We lifted a print off of Maddox's car, were going to his house now." Detective Cross said, startled to see Beckett.

"Who is it?"

"Martin Jackson, he has a few priors that suggest he might be able to help Maddox pull this all off."

"Lets go." Kate said, turning back into the elevator.

Kate got in her cruiser and looked to the passenger seat. She wished Castle was there with her. She had forced him to stay at the loft once they returned from the Hamptons. She didn't want him to get hurt, they fought and she finally got him to stay.

"_Rick, you need to stay here. I can't lose you." Kate said, grabbing her gun and badge from the safe in his office._

"_What? You expect me to just sit here while your out there trying to find them man who almost killed you?" Rick yelled. _

"_I know you don't want to, but you have to. You're not a cop, I can't let you go out there and get hurt."_

"_So let me get this straight, you can go out and fight, but I can't?"_

"_That is exactly what I mean."_

"_Are you joking? I'm coming with you." Rick said, walking towards the door to grab his jacket. "_

"_Castle! Stop, what about your mother, what about Alexis? How would they feel if something happened to you? I can't be the one who let it happen."_

"_How do you think they would feel if something happened to you! Most days, I'm pretty convinced that Alexis and my mother like you more than they like me! And how would your dad feel if something happened to you?"_

"_Thats not the same. He knows that I put myself into dangerous situations everyday. He came to terms with it a long time ago."_

"_How do you think I would feel if you got hurt? I know we just got married and all of this is still new, but you're everything to me, Kate. I can't live without you!"_

"_Castle," Kate said, trying to hold back tears. "You know what I get myself into, I'm a cop. This is what cops do. We catch bad guys and sometimes we get hurt in the process, but I can't let him get away again. Especially now, he has Esposito and Ryan!"_

"_I know how you feel, Kate. I want to catch this guy just as much as you do. I want nothing more than to have Espo and Ryan walk away from this with no harm done. But Maddox is using them to get to you! He knew you would come for them!" _

"_And that is just another reason I need to find him." She stormed out of the office and into the kitchen where her keys were sitting on the counter. She grabbed them and started walking to the door. Rick stepped in front of her, blocking the door so she couldn't get out._

"_Kate, you're not thinking."_

"_Yeah, Castle, I am. I'm thinking that Maddox, the same guy who almost killed me, has two of my best friends. I'm not letting him get away!"_

"_You're not just thinking for yourself anymore, Kate!"_

"_Rick, you knew I would be doing this for the rest of my life. I thought we had an agreement, I would go out and be a cop and you would write about it. I can't just stop being a cop."_

"_You're right, but I said that before you were pregnant. If something happened to you, I wouldn't just be losing you. I would be losing you and a baby. And I can't let you do that to me."_

"_Rick," Kate said, flying into his arms. "I'm sorry."_

"_Don't be sorry, just don't go out there." Rick said, pulling her closer._

"_I have to. What about Ryan and Esposito?"_

"_You're not the only cop in New York. Gates has to have the whole precinct on this by now."_

_Kate thought about his words. She knew he was right but she couldn't let her friends down. Ryan and Esposito had save her life so many times, she owed this to them. But Rick had a point, she had never thought twice about going out into a crime scene, she had never been pregnant either. _

"_I have to go." Kate said, breaking their hug._

"_Kate! Please don't do thi-"_

"_I'll be fine, I'll be wearing a vest the whole time. Nothings going to happen."_

"_I'm coming with you."_

"_No, Rick! Stay here. I'll be back soon." _

_Kate pushed him out of her way and walked out the door._

* * *

Kate had doubts about leaving. She knew this could potentially be a horrible idea. She watched Detectives Cross and Roberts pull away from the curb outside of the precinct, she did the same thing. She followed them to Jackson's house on auto pilot. All she could think about was Ricks words,_ 'If something happened to you, I wouldn't just be losing you. I would be losing you and a baby'_. What if something did happen to her? What if something happened to her and she lost the baby? Would she be able to live with herself? Kate pushed the thoughts out of her mind and tried to focus on saving Esposito and Ryan's lives.

They pulled into the driveway, put their vests on, and kicked the front door down; not even bothering to knock. The three detectives pulled their guns and stormed into the house. All of the rooms were clear. There had been nothing in any of them, no picture frames, no furniture, no anything. The kitchen and bathroom counters had a thin layer of dust covering them. It looked like nobody had been living their for months.

The detectives put their guns away and made their way back to the car. Thats when they heard muffled gunshot and voices coming from the garage. They all pulled their guns out at the same time, running towards the garage door. Kate lifted her head so she could see into the garage, she saw Esposito laying on the ground bleeding. He had been shot in the leg. Ryan was tied to a chair with his police cuffs. Before they could break inside, there was another gunshot, this time it was to Esposito's stomach. Kate knew that if he didn't get medical attention soon, he was going to die.

Cross lead them into the garage, all three detectives bursting in within seconds. Kate could see Esposito gasping for air.

"Detective Beckett, nice of you to join us." Maddox said, walking closer to Kate.

"I suggest you stop there, Maddox." Detective Roberts yelled, holding his gun towards Maddox's head.

Kate could see that Esposito wasn't gasping for air anymore, he wasn't doing anything. "He needs medical attention!" Kate yelled trying to get closer to her friend.

"I didn't want to kill him, Kate. But he wouldn't tell me where you were. It was the only option." Maddox said, stepping even closer to Kate. "You're all that I wanted."

Maddox had been pointing his gun towards Kate since they barged into the garage. "You should have just stayed away, backed off the case, Kate. But you didn't do that. And now you have to pay." Maddox said, pulling the trigger of his gun.

* * *

"Kate, Kate!" Castle said, trying to wake her. "Wake up, you're having a nightmare."

Kate gasped awake. She sat up and tried to make sense of her surroundings. "It felt so real." She said, turning to Rick. She let him pull her into his embrace.

"It wasn't real, it was just a dream." Rick said, rubbing her back. "Want to tell me about it?"

"We went to Jackson's house but when we got there, the place had been cleared out. Then when we left, we heard a gunshot in the garage. We stormed in and Esposito was dead."

"Oh, sweetie." Rick whispered into her hair, pulling her even closer.

"Then Maddox said that he just wanted me, then he pulled the trigger of his gun and shot me."

"I'm so sorry, Kate. It was just a dream. You're fine and you're here with me. We'll find him and get Esposito and Ryan back safely."

"How can you be so sure?"

"How can I not be sure? The best detectives in the city are working on this one."

"I guess you're right." Kate said, resting her head on his chest.

"Go back to sleep, I'll be here when you wake up."

"Thank you, Rick. I love you."

"Always Kate, always."

**Reviews are greatly appreciated :)**


	19. Chapter 19

**I appreciate it so much that you guys follow my story, it makes me so happy.**

**I really hate to do this to you guys, but I'm going to my aunt's house for like this whole week and I don't think I'll be able to update as often and frequently as i have been doing. It's sad, I know.   
**

**If I owned these characters, they would have been together a LONG time ago…**

Kate laid in bed for hours before she could finally fall asleep again. Rick had fallen back asleep in minutes, but his grip around her waist never gave up. By the time she let herself drift back to sleep, there was rays of sunlight pouring in through the window. It was noon when Kate woke up for the second time. When she looked over, Rick was also still sleeping. She wasn't in any rush to get out of bed, so she laid there with him.

The loft was silent, Alexis was still at school and Martha had left early this morning to prepare for a play. In the silence her mind wondered to her dream. It felt unbelievably real. She thought about the events that happened the day before.

_After leaving the Hamptons, Rick and Kate barged into the precinct. They practically ran out of the elevator and into Gates' office. _

"_Why didn't you call me? What have you got so far?" Kate said to Gates._

"_Beckett, why are you here?" Gates replied._

"_Why do you think I'm here? My friends have been kidnapped by the man who tried to kill me!"_

"_And that is why I didn't call you. I can't let you go out there."_

"_No! I have to!"_

"_It's too dangerous, Beckett. I can't let you."_

"_What about Esposito and Ryan?"_

"_I have every detective in this precinct running over the case files, and every cop in the state looking for Maddox. We'll get them back."_

"_But he wants me, not them. That's why I need to go! He'll come out of hiding for me."_

"_Beckett, I have already thought this through. You're not going out into the field. You can stay here and go over the case file just like everyone else. It's too risky."_

"_Sir! I can't just sit here while my friends are out there!"_

"_You're too close to this case, Beckett." Gates yelled. "You're lucky I'm letting you even look at these files."_

_Beckett grabbed the files off Gates' desk and stomped back to her desk. Castle was sitting in his normal seat, playing with his phone. When he looked up, Kate had her head in her hands. _

"_What did she say?" Rick asked, breaking the silence. _

"_She wont let me go out into the field. I have to stay in the precinct."_

"_We can be helpful from here too."_

"_it's not the same, Castle. Esposito and Ryan have saved my life so many times, I can't let them down."_

"_Then lets not let them down." Castle said, taking the file from Kate and opening it. "We can do this from here."_

* * *

Kate rolled over in bed and put her arm around Rick's hip and snuggled her head under his chin. She felt him pull her closer, she knew he would be awake soon.

"Hey." Rick mumbled into Kate's hair.

Kate didn't answer, she just hugged him tighter.

"What's wrong?" Rick asked.

"Nothing."

"Kate, I've known you long enough that I can tell when somethings bothering you. What is it?"

"Gates wont let me into the field."

"I know, but maybe it's better this way. It is a lot safer."

"How can you say it's better?" Kate said. Pulling her body back so she could look Rick in the eyes. "What if Jenny had said it was better for Ryan to stay home when he was coming to find us. Or what if Esposito had said it was too dangerous? Where would I be now? And where would you be? You have been rescued by Ryan and Esposito just as many times."

"I'm not saying that it's better if you're not a cop, Kate. And I more than appreciate every time Espo and Ryan have saved us, but this is just..bad timing."

"Has anything ever been good timing? I get calls for body drops at 3 in the morning, we got married in Vegas, and I'm pregnant. Is any of that good timing?"

"What do you mean by 'bad timing'? Because how I'm understanding it is that you're not happy."

Kate didn't answer, she was already regretting her 'bad timing' comment.

"Do you not want a baby, Kate?"

"That not what I said."

"Isn't that what you meant though?"

"I do, just not now."

"So, what are you saying?"

"I don't know, Rick. Last month I wasn't really planning on being married with a kid on the way. I just haven't gotten used to it yet."

Thoughts were flying through Rick's head at a million miles per hour. He had no clue what Kate was trying to say. What he was understanding from this conversation was that she didn't want to be married to him and didn't want to have this baby. His baby, their baby. Rick stood up from the bed and said the only thing that he could think of. "Well, you have to get used to it. This will be your life for the next twenty years. I've already been divorced when a kid was involved. We can share custody and you can come over during the week. That is the way it's going to have to work." With that, Rick stormed out of the room. Leaving Kate in bed.

"What a way to start our day." Kate mumbled to herself as she pulled the comforter down. She sat up ant thought about Rick's words. 'We can share custody and you can come over during the week.' She wanted this baby, and she sure as hell didn't want a divorce.

The whole conversation that they had did not go in the direction Kate had hoped it to. Now Rick was upset, she hated seeing him upset more than anything else. She stood up off the bed and made her way through the office. He wasn't sitting at his desk. She walked into the kitchen and saw him laying on the couch. She walked over and sat down on the table facing him. Her legs were between his legs and her hands rested on his knees.

"Hey." She said. "Can we talk about this?"

"What is there to talk about, Kate? You made yourself pretty clear."

"No, I didn't. If you think that I don't want this bab-"

"Can we just talk about this later? I'm not really in the mood to hear this right now."

"Will you just let me finish?" Kate said, when Rick didn't say anything for a few seconds, she carried on. "If you think that I don't want this baby, then you are horribly mistaken. And I you think that I don't want to be married to you, then you're not as smart as I thought you were. I know what I said made you think that I didn't want those things, but I wasn't thinking. You mean more to me than anything, more than being a cop. I am more than excited to have this baby, you have to know that. Yeah, getting married in Vegas wasn't always my plan, but thats how it happened. And I wouldn't give it up for the world. Having a baby right now wasn't my plan either. I thought I would be done working in the field, older, and planning on this before I got pregnant. But sometimes life throws you a curveball and things just happen. I never want to just see my kid on the weekends and a few days during the week. I want to spend every moment of our baby's life together. Me and you. I want both of us to be there during ultrasounds, first words, first steps, first days of school and everything after that. I can't imagine a life without you and our baby in it. I may not be ready to be a mom yet, but it's going to happen, and I'm excited for it. I'm sorry for what I said, forgive me?"

Castle was staring at his hands, when he looked up there were tears running down Kate's face. He leaned over and hugged her.

"Of course I forgive you. And I'm sorry too."

"Why are you sorry?"

"I got carried away, I should have known that you would never leave our baby. It's just when you said it was bad timing, I just assumed that you weren't ready for all of this."

Kate stood up off the coffee table and moved onto the couch next to Rick. They laid on the couch until Kate heard her phone ringing in the bedroom. She got off the couch and went into the bedroom where her phone was sitting on the night stand. When she looked down, she saw Gates' name flashing on the screen.

"Beckett." She said into the phone.

"Beckett, we've got something."


	20. Chapter 20

**Thank you guys for sticking with this story! **

**I'm going to be at my aunts for the next week, so I don't really know when and if I will be able to update next. I'm hoping it will be tomorrow night, but I really don't know. Sorry guys :(**

**I wish I owned these characters, but I don't. **

After getting the call from Gates, Beckett and Castle rushed into the precinct. They were both anxious to hear what Gates was going to tell them.

"What is it, Sir?" Beckett asked as she walked through the door to the Captain's office.

"Cross and Jones just got back from Johnson's house. Neighbors confirmed that nobody has been living there for weeks. But, a few nights ago, one neighbor heard something weird going on in the backyard and garage. They brought him in for questioning now."

Beckett and Castle walked to the interrogation room were an elderly man was sitting. He had thin grey hair, large ears and was wearing a sweater and long pants; despite the fact that it was quite warm outside.

"Who's this?" Castle asked Detective Jones.

"His name is Benjamin Kent. He claims to have heard something going on at Johnson's house."

Beckett walked into the interrogation room with Castle on her heels. "Mr. Kent, my name is Detective Beckett, and this is my partner, Rick Castle. We'll be asking you a few questions today."

"Okay, but can we make this quick? Jeopardy is on tonight." Mr. Kent replied.

"Of course, I understand that you heard some noises coming from Martin Jackson's house?"

"Yes, it was a few days ago. I woke up and it was about four in the morning, I couldn't fall asleep so I went in the kitchen for an early breakfast. That is when I noticed that the garage light next door was on. I've been watching a lot of cop shows lately, so I got kind of curious about what was going on. So I turned my kitchen light off so nobody could see me."

"And then what happened" Castle asked after the man didn't continue his story.

"Well, I couldn't really see what was happening so I grabbed my binoculars out of my study and I took them upstairs to the guest bedroom. I had a good vantage point from there. I could see almost everything that was happening. A truck pulled up, an-"

"What kind of truck?" Beckett asked.

"It was a newer pick up truck, the windows were tinted dark and I couldn't see the license plate number. But anyways, I saw two men get out of the front seats and walk inside. They couldn't find the key on their key rings so they started looking in all of the usual places that people keep spare keys. They found it on top of the window sill next to the door. After that they just went inside and then came out less than five minutes later."

"You didn't think to call the cops when this happened?" Beckett inquired.

"No, I've noticed a few people coming over to that house to pick things up, it's never the same people so I just assumed that Martin had sent them."

"When was the last time you saw Martin?"

"It's been a while. Maybe two months, give or take a week or so. We were never good friends so I haven't really noticed that he has been gone."

"Okay, thank you Mr. Kent. You're free to go now."

Mr. Kent stood up and reached for his keys in his back pocket. He pulled out a slip of paper. "Oh detective, I almost forgot. That night that those two men went into Martin's house, they dropped this. I went and picked it up, I figured you might need it." He handed the paper to Beckett and walked out of the room. By the time he made it to the elevator, Beckett and Castle were already back at her desk, contemplating what the clue was.

"Jones, can you pull traffic videos from Johnson's neighbor hood for the last week? Look for a newer pick up truck with tinted windows driving around at around four in the morning." Beckett asked the detective that was sitting in the desk behind her.

"I'm on it." Jones replied.

The paper that Beckett held in her hand was a receipt from a local storage building. On the back there were scribbled phone number, another address and more numbers that were not in the right sequence to be a phone number.

Minutes later, Jones found the truck that they were looking for. Apparently there wasn't much traffic activity at four in the morning. They got the license plate number and traced the truck back to Martin Jackson. The truck was purchased three weeks ago and was paid for in full.

Jones also ran Jackson's financials, he had a large deposit the same day he bought the truck.

* * *

A hour later, the three detectives and Castle were sitting around the conference room table going over the files again. They were at a standstill. It was eleven at night and they were not able to go to the storage unit so late. It was a relatively small and family owned business. They tried calling the owners, but nobody was answering. Gates had sent two uniforms out to pick up one of the owners, they all knew that they had to get into that storage unit as soon as possible.

Beckett and Castle walked out of the conference room and into the break room for coffee. Beckett had to drink decaf, even though she was beyond tired.

"We'll get them." Castle whispered as he pulled Beckett into a hug.

"I hope so, Rick. I really hope so." She responded, pulling him in closer.

"So, when do I get to meet his new partner of yours?" Rick asked, backing up from their hug and grabbing his coffee off the counter.

"I didn't tell you..?" Beckett asked.

"Tell me what?"

"I had Gates transfer him."

"What? Why?"

"Because you're my partner. The first day we came back from Vegas, I called Gates and talked to her about it. She was more than happy to transfer him, Ian had made himself very clear that he was not happy working under a Captain that was a woman." Beckett said, sipping her coffee. "She actually sounded happy that you were coming back."

"You're joking right? Gates was _happy_ to have me back here?"

"Shocking, I know."

* * *

"How much longer do you think he'll hold us here?" Ryan asked Esposito. They were both starving, dehydrated and had deep cuts into their wrists from where they were lifted from the ground.

Esposito was still able to stand up, but his arms were stretched over his head. Ryan on the other had, was barely touching the ground. Esposito could tell that he wouldn't make it another day if he was kept hanging like this. Ryan's wrists were covered in blood and his face was ghostly white.

The two men were now in a small storage unit. Maddox had informed them that he had bought the business from an old friend when he moved to Canada for work. This is where Maddox was hiding the whole time. He had assumed another identity and lived in the units. He had kidnapped another man, Martin Jackson, and dragged him around with him for the past month, leaving his fingerprints on things instead of Maddox's.

* * *

Kate and Rick were getting in the car to go home when the call came in. It was from the uniforms that went to the storage units. They had found an opening in the chain link fence, a whole section was missing so they could walk right through. Within seconds, Beckett an Castle were in the car racing to the storage unit.

They greeted the uniforms and started walking up and down the rows of the outdoor units. Beckett puled the paper from her pocket and pieced together the puzzle. The number '19937-23' was scribbled across the bottom of the paper. The unit was number 23. When they got there, there was a key pad and the only way they could get in was with a password. Castle tried '19937' and the door slid open. Beckett was standing in the middle of the door with her gun drawn, facing anyone who was inside.

The door slid open and startled the four men that were inside. The first thing Beckett noticed was Ryan, who was going in and out of consciousness. The next thing she knew, Maddox was holding a gun and pointing it at her. Before he could pull the trigger, Rick dove in front of her, hoping to stop the blow.

**Reviews are greatly appreciated :)**


	21. Chapter 21

**Thank you all for following this story from the beginning. I really appreciate all of you making my first story such a success. **

_**I WON'T BE ABLE TO UPDATE FOR THE NEXT 3 DAYS. I APOLOGIZE IN ADVANCE. **_

**I don't own them, really. **

After delivering the news to Kate about her pregnancy, Lanie hung up the phone and packed her bag to go back home. When she got there, Javier was not home yet. Lanie walked into the bathroom and grabbed the sleeping pills out of the cabinet. She hadn't been sleeping well lately and the pills were the only way she could fall asleep. Lanie hadn't seen Javier for a few days, they had gone for almost a week without seeing each other. Javier would work late nights and go to work early, Lanie had an opposite schedule. Throughout their years of 'secretly' dating, they came accustom to this schedule. It was hard at first but they both knew that their jobs were too important to quit. Lanie got the call from Gates three days later.

"_Hello?" Lanie asked into the phone._

"_Dr. Parish, it's Gates. You need to come into the precinct as soon as possible. I have some news." _

"_What? What's going on?"_

"_Is there anyway you could come in?"_

"_Yeah. Right now?"_

"_Yes. I'll see you soon."_

_Lanie rushed to the precinct. Kate wasn't answering her phone, neither was Esposito, Ryan or Castle. She had a feeling that something bad was happening. _

_After parking her car, Lanie stormed into Gate's office. _

"_What happened?" Lanie said, shutting the door behind her._

"_Please, sit."_

_Lanie sat down and Gates started to talk. "Maddox is back in town. Two days ago, Detectives Ryan and Esposito went out to find a possible lead on Maddox. When they got to his car, they were kidnapp-"_

"_THEY WERE WHAT?" Lanie yelled._

"_I know this is hard to hear, but were doing everything we can to find them. CSU covered the area and detectives are checking traffic cameras now." Gates said. "We'll find them, Lanie."_

_Gates continued on and explained everything that had currently happened with this investigation. Gates had called Lanie almost everyday updating her on leads they had found, the prints they discovered and what had happened at Martin Jackson's house._

_She tried calling Kate, repetitively, but she wasn't answering. She had been franticly pacing the lab everyday at work since Gates told her the news. _

* * *

Lanie was just getting ready to leave the lab when Gates burst in the door.

"They found them." Was all she could get out before the medical examiner was sprinting towards her with her arms wide open. Lanie engulfed Gates in a hug and they both left the lab to go to the hospital.

When they got there, Lanie was able to go into Esposito's room. When she walked in, he was asleep. She saw the deep cuts on his wrists that were now bandaged. He was pale and it looked like he hadn't had anything to eat or drink in days. She grabbed the chair in the corner of the room and pushed it right next to his bed. When she sat down, she grabbed his hand and tears started falling down her face like small waterfalls.

Two hours later, Javier finally woke up.

"Hey." He said to Lanie. She had nodded off and was resting her head on the bed.

She sprung awake when she heard him talk. She didn't respond to him, she hugged him instead.

"Have you heard anything on Ryan?" Esposito asked a few minutes later.

"He lost a lot of blood, but they stopped the bleeding and he has a broken wrist. He has to stay here for a while but he will be discharged within the next week." Lanie answered. "And, if you ever go and get yourself kidnapped again, I will personally come find you and kill you."

"Believe me, I do not plan on doing any of this again." He answered after laughing.

They fell into comfortable conversation. Talking about what happened, how they both felt and how much they missed each other. Lanie stepped out of the room to get dinner and to check on Ryan. When she got to his room, he was asleep and Jenny was sitting in the chair next to his bed, just like Lanie had been doing in Esposito's room. The two women hugged and chatted for a few minutes. When Ryan began to stir, Lanie excused herself from the room and went down the street to pick up their food. When she returned to the room, Javier looked scared.

"What's wrong?" Lanie asked, setting the bag down on the table.

"Have you talked to Beckett lately?"

"I haven't talked to her in a while, she's been in the Hamptons with Castle."

"She's not in the Hamptons now…"

"What do you mean?"

"She was there, she was the one who saved us."

"She did what?"

"How is she?"

"Fine, I'm assuming?" Lanie asked, confused on where this conversation was going.

"Has any doctor talked to you about her?"

"Why would a doctor be talking to me?"

"She was...shot. Castle tried to push her out of the way but he was too late."

Lanie didn't answer Esposito, instead she turned around and almost ran to the Nurse's station. When she asked about Beckett, the nurse told her that she was in surgery. Lanie asked for her room number and went to find Castle.

* * *

She went back to Esposito's room and found Gates talking to him. Lanie told them what the nurse had just told her and that she was going to talk to Castle. Gates said that she was going to talk to Ryan and that she would be back soon.

After wondering around the hospital, Lanie finally found room 202. She walked in and found Castle pacing back and forth in the small white room.

"What happened?" Lanie asked Castle.

"Maddox shot her. I tried to save her, but I was too late."

"Where was she shot? How many times?"

"I only heard one shot fired, and I think it was to her upper leg. But I don't know. There was just so much blood everywhere. I was just too late." Castle explained.

Lanie could tell that Castle was getting choked up.

"Castle." She said, walking over to hug him. "It's not you're fault. You can't blame yourself for this. You have to be strong, for Kate." She felt him hug her back, even though they never hug each other, this lingering hug wasn't awkward at all. "She'll be fine, Castle. Kate is the strongest person I know."

A few minutes later, a doctor walked in.

"Mr. Castle?"

"Yes."

"We have removed the bullet out of Detective Beckett's hip. It was a clean shot, but she lost a lot of blood. She is coming out of surgery now and will be back in this room within the hour. "

"What about the baby?" Lanie asked, almost reading Castle's mind.

"The baby will be fine, and so will she."

"Thank you doctor." Castle said.

"If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to ask." the doctor said, turning around and walking out of the room.

"So, now that we know she's going to be okay, how do you feel about...this?" Lanie asked.

"'This' being?"

"Marriage, baby, the whole nine yards."

"Honestly, I've never been happier. Well, except for this whole thing." They both laughed, soon realizing it was the first time they had smiled since they found out Ryan and Esposito were kidnapped.

"How is she taking it?"

"I think she's truly happy. We haven't really had a 'real' baby talk yet, mostly because of..you know..this, but when we have talked about it, she was happy." Castle said with a smile across his face. "When should we be expecting a Lanie/Esposito baby?"

"Don't be putting any money in a precinct pool." Lanie said, laughing. "It wont be for a while."

"That is what we all think."

"Shut up, Castle. How are Alexis and your mom talking all of this?"

"Well.." Rick said, thinking about his answer. "They don't know yet."

"Waiting for a perfect moment?"

"Any moment actually, I haven't seen them since before we went to the Hamptons. Alexis is back at school and my mother has been doing crazy rehearsals for her new play."

Before they could talk anymore, Kate was rolled back into the room. Lanie quickly got up, said goodbye to Castle and walked out the door. Leaving Castle to his thoughts and an unconscious Kate.

**Reviews are greatly appreciated :) **


	22. Chapter 22

**Thank you guys for following my story, it means the world to me.**

**A/N: Sorry I haven't been able to update for a while, it's been a CRAZY week. **

**Unfortunately, I don't own them. **

Castle waited for hours for Kate to wake up. He paced the room, called his mother, Alexis and Jim, bought Kate flowers and started to pace again. He eventually sat down and quickly drifted to sleep. He dreamt of Kate being shot, again.

"_Want to order in tonight?" Kate asked Rick as they got into her car._

"_Yeah, that sounds fine." Rick replied. _

"_What should we get? Itali-" Before she could finish, she was cut off by her phone ringing. "Beckett." she said, holding the phone to her ear._

"_They found a storage unit, uniforms are going there now. Lets go." She said as she put the car in drive and pulled out of the precinct._

"_Kate, what are you doing?"_

"_Going to the storage unit, what do you think I'm doing?"_

"_But Gates said that you weren't allowed to go out into the field."_

"_Since when do you listen to Gates?" Kate said, with a huge smile across her face. Castle wasn't sharing the same expression. Her smile quickly turned into a frown._

"_This is a great time to start listening to Gates. I really think that we should just go home and wait for Gates to call you tomorrow."_

"_No. We are going. Nothing is going to happen. The uniforms don't even know if Maddox is there, and if he is, we'll go home."_

"_Kate, please."_

"_I'll be fine, Castle."_

_They drove the rest of the way to the storage unit in silence. Rick couldn't help but think of the worst possible situations. He imagined Kate being shot, or stabbed, or killed. He couldn't stand to think about losing her. Little did he know, Kate was thinking about the exact same things. She was terrified that Maddox was at the storage units. She didn't know what he was going to do to her. All she knew was that her co-workers, her friends, the men who saved her life on more than one occasion were somewhere out there, and she was going to be the one to find them. _

_They pulled into the storage unit and Kate jumped out of the car, almost running towards the uniforms. Before she knew it, Rick had caught up to her and was pulling her arm back to the car. He popped the trunk and took her vest out and strapped it on her. She felt like a child, but even though she would never admit it, she loved that Rick took better care of her then she did her self. _

_After Rick made sure that Kate's vest was securely on, he grabbed her hand and led her over to the uniforms who were talking in front of the gate._

"_Beckett," One officer said. "I'm surprised to see you here."_

"_What do you have so far?"_

"_Were checking the back rows of the facility first, so if Maddox is in here, he will have to come out the front. We've gone through almost all of the units, but they're all empty. There is thirty units left that we haven't checked yet."_

"_All of them are empty?" Rick asked._

"_So far, yes."_

_Kate stuck her hand in her pocket and pulled out a small, folded piece of paper. The numbers on the back had to mean something. She stared at it and finally figured it out. She raced to unit 23, Rick was quick to follow. This was the only unit with a keypad in front of the steel door. Puzzled by the numbers, she starred at the paper and back to the keypad. Before she could reach up, Rick was typing in the digits. _

_As the door lifted slowly, Kate pulled her gun and lightly pushed Castle off to the side so he wasn't standing in the middle of the door with her. Once the door was open, the first thing she noticed was Ryan. He was hanging by his wrists and she could see blood dripping down his arms. His feet were barley touching the ground and his head was bobbing up and down, she could tell that he was losing consciousness. Next to him was Esposito. His feet were still touching the ground, but just barley. She noticed the cuts into his arms too, but they weren't as bad as Ryan's. _

_Rick's gaze wasn't fixed on the two detectives hanging by their wrists, he was staring at Maddox. He could see him moving his arm towards his back. Rick new he was reaching for a gun. _

"_Hello, and goodbye Detective Beckett." Maddox said before pulling the gun out and pointing it towards Kate. The second that Castle heard this, he dove in front of her. But he was too late. After hitting the ground, Castle pulled the gun out of Kate's hands and fired back at Maddox. He looked down at Kate, they were both still on the ground. He noticed that his sleeve was wet. He could see the red blood covering the arm of his light blue shirt. _

_Rick felt his heart skip a beat and he immediately put a hand to her stomach, she wasn't bleeding from there. When he looked down he noticed that her pants were also covered in blood. Before he could find where the bleeding was coming from, an ambulance arrived and loaded Kate into it. Two more stretchers were brought out for Ryan and Esposito and the three detectives were rushed to the hospital. _

Rick jolted awake and found that Kate was still asleep in the hospital bed next to him. He stood up and moved his chair closer to her. After he grabbed her hand, he felt her begin to stir.

"Hey." He said as she opened her eyes slowly.

"I'm so sorry, Rick." Kate replied as she reached her arms up and pulled him down for a hug.

"Don't be sorry, you found them. They're fine, you're fine."

"I knew I should have listened to you."

"Kate, don't. It's fine, everything is going to be fine."

"The baby?"

"Fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, there was a doctor in here earlier and she did an ultrasound. I even heard the heartbeat, I just wish you were awake to hear it with me." He replied as he leaned in for another hug. "Our babies are going to be fine."

"Wait, babies? As in plural?"

Rick sat up with a huge smile across his face. "The doctor and I may or may not have heard two heart beats on the ultrasound today."

"Two? Twins?"

"Yes."

Before Rick could say another word, Kate reached up and pulled his head down. Smashing his lips with hers.

"I take it as you're excited then?" Rick said, resting his forehead agains hers.

"More than excited, Rick."

**I know that this is a short chapter, but like I said, it's been a really crazy week and I didn't want to leave you guys with nothing for too long. I'm home now so I'm hoping to be posting more frequently. I hope you like it. **

**Reviews are greatly appreciated. **


	23. Chapter 23

**I appreciate all of you who have been following this story from the beginning, thank you so much.**

**I don't own them, really. **

* * *

**ONE YEAR LATER. **

Kate was the first to wake up. She looked over and saw Rick peacefully sleeping. This had been the first night that they were able to sleep through. They knew that life with one baby was hard, but now they had two.

Kate thought about how much her life had changed over the past year. After Ryan and Esposito were found, she had taken a month off. When she came back, Gates had called Kate into her office. Gates explained how her husband was being transferred to West Virginia for work and that she was going with him. She wanted Kate to take over the role of Captain. Without question, Kate accepted the title.

When she told Rick later that day, he was more than excited. It meant that Kate wouldn't be going out into the field as much, which was much safer for her. And their babies. The transition from detective to Captain happened immediately. Although it was not the traditional rout for becoming Captain, nobody questioned it. Everyone from the precinct knew that Kate was the only candidate for Captain.

Laying next to her, Rick began to stir. "Good morning, mommy." He whispered while kissing her forehead.

"Good morning to you too."

"What time is it?"

"Seven."

"They're still sleeping?" Rick said in excitement.

"Surprising, right?"

Kate scooted closer to Rick and he pulled her into his embrace. They laid there together in comfortable silence.

"You're thinking too loud, Castle." Kate mumbled into Rick's arm. "What is it?"

"You know what happened one year ago today?"

"No?"

"You were in the hospital with Esposito and Ryan."

"Oh. That."

They both started to recall the events that unfolded a year ago.

_A few hours after Kate woke up, Gates came into her hospital room. Rick stepped out of the room, giving the detective and her boss a moment alone. _

"_How are you feeling, Beckett?" Gates asked._

"_Okay, I guess." Kate replied._

"_Are you going to take time off?"_

"_I don't know yet."_

"_Yes." Gates answered. "You are."_

"_Okay." Kate said, knowing that some time off would be highly beneficial. "How long?"_

"_At least a month. If you need more time, just let me know. It will not be a problem."_

"_Thank you, Sir." Kate said as Gates turned to walk out the door. "Wait."_

"_What is it, Beckett?"_

"_Maddox." She asked. "What happened to him? Where is he? Please tell me he is in custody."_

"_I usually don't say this, but given the circumstances, it's better than in custody."_

"_What do you mean?"_

"_After you were shot, Castle pulled your gun and shot at Maddox."_

"_And?" Kate said with anticipation. _

"_Castle shot Maddox in the chest, he bled out in the ambulance before they got to the hospital." _

_After hearing that her husband killed the man that was ruining her life, Kate didn't know how to respond to Gates. They said their goodbyes and Gates left the room and said she was going to talk to Ryan and Esposito about their mandatory leave. After Gates walked out of the room, Rick walked in._

"_I love you, Rick. So much." Kate said as Rick walked over to the bed. _

"_I love you too, Kate. More than you could ever know."_

"_Thank you." She whispered into his neck as she pulled him into a hug. _

"_For what?"_

"_You shot him. You killed Maddox."_

"_I couldn't let him get away, he hurt you too much."_

* * *

"Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you." Rick said, kissing her hair.

"It's fine, Rick. It's in the past."

"Lets go away this weekend." Rick said. "We should go to the Hamptons. We haven't been there in a while."

"That sounds great, when should we leave?"

"Tonig-"

He was cut off by the sounds of crying babies coming through the baby monitor that sat on his nightstand. Rick got up and hurried up the stairs into the nursery. Kate got out of bed and started looking for something to wear. She smiled when she heard Rick talking to their babies through the monitor.

She got dressed and walked out to the kitchen to find Rick carrying both babies down the stairs. He handed Kate their son as he held his daughter close. They fed their twins together and talked about their upcoming trip until they heard Alexis coming down the stairs.

Alexis had been the most helpful person with the twins. She was always willing to help with diaper changes and feedings at three in the morning. She had come home from college for the summer a few days before Kate went into labor.

"Good morning, guys." Alexis said as she poured a glass of orange juice. "Need any help with anything?"

"Actually," Rick replied. "We were thinking about going to the Hamptons this weekend, would you mind packing a bag for Emma and Jack? And don't forget to pack a bathing suit this time." He joked.

"That was a one time thing, dad." Alexis replied. "I'll go pack now."

Within the next hour, Rick and Kate were both packed and all of their suitcases were sitting by the front door. Rick was slowly bringing the bags down to the car while Kate and Alexis strapped Jack and Emma into their car seats.

* * *

Rick pulled the SUV onto the highway and they started their drive to the beach house. Looking into the back seat, Kate noticed that Alexis, Jack and Emma were already asleep.

"Kodak moment." Rick said, reaching out for Kate's hand. "What are you thinking about?"

"Just how happy I am that Lanie and Javi got married."

"What made you think of that?"

"If they wouldn't have gotten married, we wouldn't have gotten married. Or had the twins. Who knows where we would have been if none of that had happened." Kate said, squeezing his hand. "I'm glad we've made it this far, Rick. I've never been happier."

"There is nowhere else I would rather be, Kate."

* * *

**Alright guys, this is the last chapter of Vegas, Baby. **

**I can not express how happy I am that you guys liked this story. This is my first attempt at fanfic writing and I'm overjoyed that this story got such a good reaction. So, thank you guys.**


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